Collision Course
by Dragonmistriss
Summary: Based after the X2 movie. CHAPTER 8 UP! Now the stage is being set for the things to come....
1. After Math

~* Note- These characters are NOT mine. They are characters from the X2 movie. I hold no rights to anything except the story I have written Kia, Aurora, and Willow (my own made up characters). Some chapters will be painfully short, others will be painfully long, just bear with me. I'm sorry if the sentences don't line up, I already had the first 9 chapters typed up on Word so I've been copying and pasteing every paragraph...one at a time...to notepad -.- A pain, but its worth it if you enjoy, so without further adeu...I present "Collision Course". I hope you enjoy it!*~  
  
***This story is more like a continuation of the X2 movie, after Jean Grey 'dies'. ***  
  
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The abyss black night claimed the suns power, consuming its light. The dreary sidewalks of the Xavier Institute were abandoned by the students, most of whom were asleep, the rest raiding the kitchen or watching TV as the small boy changed channels. Bobby sat at the kitchen counter with a quart of vanilla ice cream ,already half gone, in front of him. He found a strange comfort in eating the frozen snack more so now than ever, since Jean had sacrificed herself to save them from the raging water. He had almost completely forgotten the blue newcomer, Kurt, in both the schools and his own depression and grieving. He was abruptly reminded, however, as he caught a glimpse of something moving in a tree outside the large kitchen window.  
  
A spiked tail hung over a thick branch, just barely visible beneath the long deep tan/olive and black spotted cloak that the teleporter wore to hide the appendage from humans and mutants alike. Bobby moved closer to the window, trying to look past the leaves to the newest member. Kurt's back was turned to the window, his gaze directed up at the stars. His cloak was more bunched at his shoulders, as he crouched on paw-like feet, elbows resting on his legs and three fingered hands dangling in front of his knees. Bobby shook his head, turning around only to discover Logan searching through the refrigerator mumbling something about a need for a stash of beer. Bobby gave a weak smile to the wolverine, chuckling to himself about Logan's apparent 'need' for beer. Logan turned to his last hope, the cabinet containing the soda, pulled one out and tossed it to Bobby. Fumbling the unexpected bottle around in his hands for a few moments, Bobby finally got a firm hold in the end, chilling the carbonated drink in his hand before tossing it back to Logan.  
  
After draining a fourth of the bottle in one gulp, Logan looked over at Bobby again.   
  
"What were you staring at kid?"   
  
Was all his rough voice remarked before draining another fourth of the bottle. Bobby shrugged.   
  
"The new guy out there."   
  
Logan gave him a strange look before realizing who Bobby was talking about. Moving over to the window himself, Logan set the bottle down on the window sill, leaning into the same sill with the palm of his hands, and looked through the leaves at Kurt.  
  
"How long has he been sitting out there?"  
  
"Don't know, I just noticed him a few minutes ago."  
  
Logan never let his gaze wander from the mostly unmoving NightCrawler, only his spiked tail swayed every so often. Standing straight up again and grabbing his bottle of soda off the window sill, Logan drained the remainder of the contents and walked out the kitchen door into the garden. Bobby didn't follow, not knowing what Logan was up to, moving over to the window sill and assuming the leaning position Wolverine had been in moments before.  
  
  
  
Silently crossing through the grass, denying the grieving sidewalk of any contact, Logan approached the limb Kurt was perched upon...still stargazing. Climbing up into the tree, Logan sat against the tree trunk with one knee bent and serving as an armrest while allowing the other leg to dangle freely over the side. Kurt flickered his gaze over to Logan almost fearfully, remembering the metal infused mans fighting ability and easily irritated nature. Logan offered a half hearted smile, then looked up at the stars.  
  
"What are you doing out here Kurt?"  
  
Snapping out of his fearful gaze, NightCrawler sighed.  
  
"Thinking..."  
  
Was the only heavily German accented word to escape from between his fangs, which stood out very much against his midnight blue skin. Logan gave him a sideways glance, already seeming to know what the teleporter meant.  
  
"The kids will get used to you, they are just grieving..."  
  
He abruptly forced himself to stop before he said 'over Jean's death.' Kurt cast his gaze to the ground.  
  
"No, it is not 'dat."  
  
He paused.  
  
"Vell, maybe some of it."  
  
His hand slipped down to his belt, where he found his silver cross and clutched it in a now fisted hand, trying not to bite his lip to hold back tears.  
  
"I feel like it is all my fault."  
  
He opened his fist, and gazed solemnly at the small cross.  
  
"He didn't vant me to save 'er. I tried to teleport down 'nd get 'er...but she vould not let me..."  
  
The free three fingered hand shot up to his cheek, catching a tear in hopes that Logan's keen eyes hadn't seen it. Logan stifled his own tears...how could she have picked Scott over him? His eyes shot over to Kurt just as the demonic looking catholic wiped away the tear.  
  
"It's not your fault, she wouldn't let anyone leave, not even Scott."  
  
Golden yellow eyes glimmered softly under the sheen of tears waiting to trickle down Kurt's tattooed face.  
  
"I don't think the children vill ever accept me. Vhat if 'dey think I didn't get 'er on purpose?"  
  
Logan quickly scoffed at the idea.  
  
"You didn't even know her, the kids aren't going to think your a murderer. Xavier won't let them even if they wanted to."  
  
Kurt released the cross, letting it fall back to his side.  
  
"I can only 'ope."  
  
He murmured before glancing over his shoulder at the sidewalk at the sounds of footsteps echoing from the pavement.   
  
  
  
Storm walked outside, pushing a familiar wheelchair. Kurt watched their approach, before noting that the tree he currently occupied had no sidewalk anywhere near it. The professor seemed to be looking at him, so in a puff of midnight blue mist and a small "bamf", Kurt appeared in front of the wheelchair. Logan made his way down more nonchalantly, taking his time. Xavier waited until Logan had plodded his way through the dew covered grass to speak.   
  
"Evening Logan, Kurt. You two certainly have been racking up some disturbing brain waves concerning you, Kurt. Care to tell me?"  
  
The conversation was carefully repeated for the professor, ending when Xavier rose his hand to silence them. He looked at Kurt carefully.  
  
"Some students are leery of you, I won't lie to you about that, but Rogue has been spreading your rescue story on the jet around, and I can proudly conclude that no student hates you."  
  
Kurt gave a weak smile, still very unsure of the accusation. Storm leaned down and whispered something into the professors ear. Xavier smiled.  
  
"Come see me in my office in the morning if you don't mind Kurt."  
  
Without explanation, Storm turned and wheeled the professor back inside. Logan walked after them, his curiosity had yet to be satisfied about why only Kurt was supposed to meet with Xavier. Kurt again found himself alone in the garden, teleporting himself back into the tree, this time laying on his back. Placing his hands behind his head and scooting back so that his hands rested on the trunk of the tree, he looked up at the stars again. One foot remained flat on the branch, the other hung over the tree. His tail slowly wrapped around the branch to secure him as he drifted off to sleep, hidden by softly rustling leaves under the star filled sky. 


	2. Midnight Meeting

~* NOTE-- The X-Men is copyright of Marvel Comics, I am but a mere pawn building off of their idea. Kia, Aurora and Willow, as well as this stories plot, are copyrighted to me. P.S.--I am the Queen of Typo's...so you will have to excuse all errors until I have time to correct them. *~  
  
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Chapter 2-- Midnight Meeting  
  
The hour of midnight was barely over when Rogue walked down into the kitchen. Bobby had long since abandoned his empty carton of ice cream and returned to bed. Rogue opened a cabinet, digging to the farthest reaches back until her hand hit a small pile of candy bars she had hidden from the younger mutants just a few days ago. When she pulled them down, two of them were gone. She smiled to herself, knowing that Logan must have sniffed them out. She took a couple herself before replacing them in their original hiding place, closed the cabinet door and ventured over to the window. As she approached the window, she absent-mindedly unwrapped a Twix bar and took a few bites. She looked out the window and up at the stars, before looking at the closest tree to the window. There, she saw what looked like a giant bat with a long, thin tail. She suddenly realized that it was Kurt, hanging by his tail from the tree branch. Finishing her half eaten Twix bar, Rogue put the rest in the pocket of her pajama pants and walked out the back door towards Kurt.  
  
He was sound asleep, even snoring softly. Rogue just stared at the blue mutant for a moment, finally reaching up and tapping him on the shoulder lightly...forgetting about his mostly solitary life after the circus. Yellow eyes snapped open, and Rogue was suddenly engulfed in the strange deep blue mist his teleportation produced as Kurt teleported to a crouching attack position on the ground below where he had been sleeping, then behind Rogue. One of his arms restrained her shoulders, the other the lower halves of her arms, the sharp, blade-like side of his tail held close to her throat.  
  
"Kurt!"  
  
She gasped in fear.  
  
"It's me! Rogue!"  
  
His arms suddenly loosened their hold on her, his tail recoiling behind him again. He gently grabbed both her shoulders and spun her around to face him.  
  
"Rogue?"  
  
His voice was shaky, he obviously wasn't used to being waken up at one in the morning, and being tapped in an unfamiliar place had sprung a defensive cord in his mind. His eyes were wide with shock at his own reaction. Rogue gulped down her own shocked fear and nodded in agreement with his question, even though it had become more of a statement at the end. He released her shoulder, taking a half step back then stopped and moved forwards again, brushing her long hair behind her shoulders, eyes scanning for any blood.  
  
"I didn't 'urt you, did I?"  
  
He asked nervously. Rogue gave a weak smile.  
  
"I'm ok...just a bit shaken."  
  
Kurt gave a sigh of relief, then looked rather ashamed.  
  
"This is all my fault too. I should 'ave known who it vas."  
  
Rogue put her hand on his shoulder comfortingly.  
  
"No its not. I snuck up on you, I'm sorry. There's no real harm done, just a little frightened, that's all."  
  
Kurt nodded, not sure how to say thank you for her acceptance. Smiling a little more than before and looking up at the branch Kurt had been hanging from, Rogue pulled herself up onto the limb. Kurt waited until she was safely seated, then pulled himself up as well, though with less struggle than Rogue. Handing him a candy bar from inside, Kurt took it carefully, inspecting it with curiosity.   
  
"Vhat is 'is for?"  
  
"Nothing, I can't sleep, and I saw you out here so I thought I'd talk to you."  
  
Kurt nodded, handing the candy bar back to Rogue. She took it without argument.  
  
"Vhy can't you sleep?"  
  
Rogue shrugged.  
  
"Just thinking about all the things that have been happening lately."  
  
"About Jean?"  
  
"No...just everything. Logan being right there...he could have known everything about his past, but he gave it up to stay with us. And Bobby's family...and you. I still don't feel like saying thank you is good enough. You saved my life."  
  
Kurt shook his head.  
  
"I couldn't just let you vall to your doom. The Lord didn't vant it to end 'dat vay for you."   
  
Rogue gave a sideways smirk.  
  
"No, maybe not."  
  
She looked up at the stars, searching through them with care, finding the big and little dipper quickly. Kurt followed her gaze, looking only at a bright star, but it was not a star at all, but the planet Venus. Rogue gave a heavy hearted sigh, one question plaguing her mind. She looked over at Kurt, seeming almost embarrassed to say anything.  
  
"That stuff Stryker used to control mutants minds, and on you to make you try and kill the president...what did it feel like?"  
  
Kurt reached back, touching the slowly healing circle on the back of his neck where Stryker had applied the mind controlling liquid. He was silent for a long moment.  
  
"It burned terribly..."  
  
He began, holding the back of his neck with care as if just talking about it made it burn.  
  
"Zen I felt almost normal...I could see every thing just fine. I could see myself valking through 'de Vhite House, and attacking all 'de guards. Zen I remember seeing 'de President's 'orrified face, and holding a knife in my 'and. Zen every thing goes blurry, and I only remember racing back 'ome...to 'de cathedral...and 'olding my shoulder."  
  
He stopped, looking away from the stars and Rogue, looking back at the Institute.  
  
"Zen Storm and Jean came and found me. I thought for sure 'dat 'dey 'ad come to take me avay for 'de assassination attempt....or to kill me..."  
  
Rogue watched Kurt carefully.  
  
"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to make you talk about such a painful memory..."  
  
"No, it is alright. You vould 'ave vanted to know sooner or later."  
  
Rogue nodded, looking back at the Institute as a light flickered on in one of the rooms. The thicker curtain made it difficult to see who it was, but the location of the room was that of Logan's. Rogue smiled slightly, he still couldn't sleep. The light went back off, leaving the institute still and calm again. Kurt looked over at her, a question lingering on his mind as well.  
  
"You vere afraid of me, veren't you?"  
  
Rogue looked over at him, startled by the question. Kurt smiled.  
  
"It doesn't matter to me now if you vere or not, but I vas just vandering."  
  
"Well, at very first...yeah. It's not every day I meet a blue mutant who only has three fingers and a devil's tail."  
  
Seeming hurt by the comment 'devil's tail', Rogue quickly tried to explain herself.  
  
"I don't mean that your anything like you look, but that was my first impression of you before I had even talked to you."  
  
"First impressions are 'de vorst to go by."  
  
Kurt replied, still acting stung from the unholy remark. Rogue placed her forehead in her palm, what had she went and said now? She looked for a way to make it up to him, finally her eye was caught by a glint of silver as Kurt reached down to his side and picked up the little cross.  
  
"Kurt, your the most dedicated person I've ever met, I didn't mean for it to be so personal. I know now that your not what you seem at first."  
  
The teleporter was silent.  
  
"Maybe I should just try and go back to sleep..."  
  
She stated, starting to slide herself off the tree branch before she felt Kurt's hand wrap gently around her upper arm.  
  
"It's ok Rogue. It vas stupid of me to take it personally. You don't 'ave to go if you don't vant too."  
  
Pulling herself back up onto the limb, Rogue nodded.  
  
"Alright then, I'll stay out here a little longer then."  
  
It was not long before Kurt's attention was drawn towards one of the many doors. A soft squeaking proceeded a glint of red lenses as a shadowy figure turned and closed the door behind it. Rogue watched with only mild interest. The figure turned again, this time the red glint shone across both places were its eyes would have been in the moonlight. Kurt relaxed slightly, recognizing the red sun glasses worn by Scott. Scott wandered closer to the tree, having yet to notice that Rogue and Kurt lingered in the branches watching him. His pace was slow, steady, almost a trudge rather than a walk. A flash of worry shone in Rogue's eyes as she watched him walk right under them, hoping that he would just let his feelings out again, not bottle them up like this. Kurt could just sense the heavy sorrow in the air around Scott, and now in Rogue as well, and decided to speak up.  
  
"Hello Scott. Out for a valk at one in de morning, eh?"  
  
In one amazingly graceful mid air turn, Scott was facing them, his hands on the sides of his sunglasses.  
  
"Who's up there!"  
  
He nearly shouted at them. Rogue elbowed Kurt in the side lightly...the teleporter had forgotten the veil of leaves surrounding them.  
  
"Rogue and Kurt."  
  
She answered him. Scott looked for a long moment, but never removed his hands from his sunglasses.  
  
"Prove it."  
  
Scott found himself eating his words. No more than five seconds after telling the unseen voices to prove that they truly were Rogue and Kurt, his shoulders were suddenly grabbed from behind and he found himself sitting in the tree as the midnight blue mist slowly cleared.  
  
" 'Dere, see? It is just Rogue 'nd me."  
  
Scott was shaken, but slowly was able to make his hands move and removed his grip from the rims of his shades.  
  
"Wha....what the hell are you two doing out here?"  
  
He asked sternly, suddenly using his seniority against them in a vie for authority as well as privacy.   
  
"I couldn't sleep."  
  
"'Nd I vas thinking."  
  
Scott nodded, an eerily parental nod that all children knew too well....the one that said 'likely story'.   
  
"You know your not supposed to be out here."  
  
He snapped. Kurt shrugged, slightly nervous.  
  
"No one told me 'dat."  
  
Scott shot his hidden gaze to Rogue, she only knew that he was looking at her when his head snapped in her direction.  
  
"But you did know Rogue."  
  
Rogue gave him a glare.  
  
"Look, I couldn't sleep and there was no one else up to talk to inside, so I came out to talk to Kurt. And just what are you doing out here?"  
  
She snapped back. Scott recoiled his neck slightly in surprise at her sudden harshness, but it didn't matter because he had no answer to offer her.  
  
"I was.....well, just....erm...."  
  
Rogue sent him a glare. Scott fell silent, her gaze more demanding of authority than his.  
  
"At least we have good excuses."  
  
"....Thinking....about Jean..."  
  
Scott muttered a few minutes later. His voice had a defeated, over burdened sound to it, the kind of voice that might have been expected of an eighty year old who had been doing physical labor since he was 15, not a young, healthy person like Scott. Rogue was quick to drop her defensive attitude, making Kurt scoot over so she could sit closer to Scott.  
  
"I know its hard for you, but you have to let her go..."  
  
She reached out, placing her hand lightly on Scott's wrist. He responded by violently shaking his head, his face contorted into a pouting one as he forced himself to hold back his tears. He wrenched his arm away from her grip.  
  
"How can you tell me to do that! She was the only one for me and you want me to just move on like she never existed!?"  
  
He shouted in her face, suddenly becoming defensive himself and grabbing her shoulders, shaking her back and forth as she tried to free herself. A sound like a match being struck was emitted from behind Rogue, the bamf was quickly followed by Kurt's appearance between Scott and Rogue. Pushing out his shoulders, Kurt freed Rogue from Scott's hateful, mourning grip. Kurt placed his hands on top of Scott's shoulders, his grip surprisingly strong for having only three fingers. But it was his yellow eyes, staring sternly past Scott's sunglasses, were what forced Cyclops to look straight into Kurt's eyes and pay attention even through his sobbing and fighting back tears, not the firm grip.  
  
"You never 'ave to let 'er go, but you must pull yourself out of 'is. Jean never 'as to leave your 'eart 'nd soul...she can live through you every day if you let 'er. But you must let 'er leave you physically. 'De Lord 'as a plan for 'er, 'dat is vay He took 'er from you. But you must not let yourself go like 'is, Scott. Jean vould never vant to see you like 'is...not even if you are crying for 'er."   
  
Kurt slowly released Scott's shoulders, prepared to block an attack if necessary. But Scott never lashed out. Instead he let his gaze drop to the ground below, only the sounds of falling tears and choking back the full onslaught of his sorrow came from him in response to Kurt's speech. Rogue made a move to reach out to Scott, but Kurt caught her by the wrist. She gave him a desperate look, only to find stern golden yellow eyes holding their ground.  
  
"Leave 'im alone, Rogue."  
  
Before she was able to protest, Scott slide off the branch, landed on his feet upon the ground and began to speed walk back towards the door which he had come out of. Kurt watched him go and released Rogue's wrist.  
  
"'Dis is something 'dat he must overcome on 'is own."  
  
Rogue reluctantly nodded, and slide off the branch as well.  
  
"I need to go and do some thinking too Kurt..."  
  
She said, looking up at him before giving a weak smile.  
  
"Thank you for letting me talk to you though."  
  
"Any time."  
  
She trotted back through the grass, trying to avoid most of the now thick dew laying on the blades of grass. Kurt watched her leave as well, finally drawing his knees up under his chin and glancing up at the heavens.  
  
"You most certainly vork in mysterious vays...because I think I'm only making things vorse 'ere. But, you brought me 'ere...so I'll stay until you move me elsevere." 


	3. Meeting with Professor X

~* Once again, everything except the plot and my three made-up characters (Kia, Aurora, and Willow) are copyrighted to Marvel Comics. This is a short chapter, I know, but just be patient, the best is yet to come.*~  
  
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Chapter 3--Meeting with Professor X  
  
The new morning sun broke through the horizon off in the distance, though it looked so close. The warm rays created a field of prisms as the dew drops yielded rainbow light to the more powerful force. Breaking across the cloaked form sitting in the tree, the light failed to awaken Kurt. But that was changed when he felt a tug on his tail, almost toppling backwards before grabbing the branch and climbing back up before turning to glare over his shoulder sleepily to see Strom smirking up at him and holding the base of the spiked part of his tail in her hand.  
  
"Well good morning to you too Kurt."  
  
She laughed as his glare faded slightly.  
  
"Sorry, but the Professor asked me to come get you."  
  
Nodding wearily, Kurt waited for her to let go of his tail, and when she had he jumped down. Storm walked over to him, still smiling. Kurt gave a momentary smile back before turning and following her back to Xavier's office.  
  
As they past through the halls Kurt was all too aware of the stares he received from students making their way to the kitchen to get breakfast before morning classes began. A few smaller stragglers rushed past him, making sure to stay away from his cloak which fanned out behind him as he attempted to keep up with Storms quick pace. One very young child toddled after them, his friends had obviously forgotten to wake him up for he was still dressed in his pajamas. Kurt gave a smirk at the child, not a harsh one, but a kindly one, making sure to keep his lips together to avoid frightening the youngster with gleaming fangs. Storm looked at the little boy as he made a mad dash into the kitchen, yelling to his companions to save a poptart for him. She gave a happy sigh, then looked at Kurt who had allowed himself to slow his pace.   
  
"We'll be late for your appointment if you keep up this pace. Xavier has a class this morning, so we need to get there quickly."  
  
Kurt nodded, quickening his pace to catch up with Storm, who was a good four yards in front of him. She likewise slowed her pace, returning to normal when Kurt was at her side.  
  
The door to Xavier's office opened of its own accord as Storm and Kurt approached. Inside the spacious room, the professor sat behinds a small row of chairs, hands slightly apart at the wrists, finger tips slanted so that they met. Storm nodded her greeting and smiled, Kurt gave a lower bow. Xavier smiled, placing his hands on the armrests.   
  
"Welcome Kurt, thank you Storm."  
  
Storm nodded and started to turn to leave.  
  
"That's quit alright Storm, you may stay."  
  
She stopped and nodded, taking a seat in one of the chairs in front of the professor. Kurt did much the same, sitting more in front of Xavier than Storm. Xavier smiled broadly as he looked at both of them, then began to speak.  
  
"I thank you for coming on such short notice Kurt. I know that the meaning behind this meeting was left unspoken as of last night, but you will know soon enough. First, I would like to ask you how you like your stay here so far."  
  
Kurt shifted in his chair slightly, feeling like he was in an interview and one wrong word could mean that he was back at an abandoned church without a friend in the world once again...just another circus freak. Xavier was quick to pick up on this thought.  
  
"You need not be so worried Kurt. We're not going to kick you out by any means."  
  
Kurt shifted again. The thought that the head master of the school could read his mind was still very much a little frightening.  
  
"Vell, I like it 'ere a lot. I still don't know vere much is, but from vhat I can see, 'is is a great place."  
  
Xavier nodded.  
  
"Very good. I'm glad you like it, because I would like to offer you a job."  
  
"Vhat kind of job, Professor?"  
  
"Simple really. We sadly don't have a world religion class yet, which is what you would teach if we had such a class should you want to, but there aren't enough students interested to have a need for the class. So instead, the teaching staff and I think it would be easier for new students to adjust if they had a staff member that would act as their friend and guide until they got used to the school. This would also help the older students get more used to you, since you expressed concern about that last night when we spoke."  
  
Kurt's eyes lit up. A chance to become known as a good guy, an X-man, not the blue freak Jean murderer he was still convinced the children saw him as. He nodded eagerly.  
  
"I vould be honored, Professor. Thank you."  
  
Xavier smiled.  
  
"I do believe that you are the perfect person for the job Kurt. These new students need a calm ,trustworthy soul such as you to trust in at first. And perhaps in the future the need for a spiritual counselor will be in order as the school grows. If such needs arise, then you will be first informed. "  
  
Storm nodded as well, looking to Xavier as he gave her a sign.  
  
"And you will get to meet your first trainee in about a week. She's a little older than most students here, but her powers are beginning to get out of her control. Just for a little background on her before you meet her, her name is Lily, her mutant name is Willow. She comes from a mutant hating family, so she's pretty insecure about being a mutant. Your sure you don't mind now?"  
  
Kurt again nodded eagerly. The chance to give a younger mutant incentive to strive to be the best they could be...that offer was the best yet.   
  
"Of course I don't mind. I vould love to be a guide for 'de new students."  
  
"Then it is settled."  
  
Xavier extended his hand towards Kurt, and Kurt did the same, with one hand shake, Kurt felt more fully accepted than he ever had in his life.  
  
"Welcome to the X-men, Kurt." 


	4. Cherry Orchard

*~ Copyrighted to Marvel (except the plot, Kia, Aurora, and Willow.) This is sort of a relaxing chapter, where nothing major happens...but it is setting the scene for chapter 5, when I introduce one of my made-up.*~  
  
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Chapter 4--Cherry Orchard  
  
After the meeting, Storm had offered to walk and talk with Kurt about any concerns and questions he might have had. They walked towards the outskirts of the Institutes property, into an orchard of apple, cherry, pear and peach trees. Every tree was a beautiful white, cream, or lightly orange tainted color as the blossoms that marked the beginning of the growing season replaced all the green leaves that had yet to awaken from the winter.  
  
Storm walked over to one tree, sitting on a low branch as Kurt was content to crouch upon the ground, gazing up at the beauty of new life. His thoughts wandered to his soon to arrive 'student'.  
  
"I vonder vhat Villow's powers are 'dat could be so out of control..."  
  
He mused to himself, even though the thought was stated out loud by accident. Storm lightly smacked her forehead, feeling stupid.  
  
"Of course, I'm sorry I forgot to tell you. Willow has earth powers."  
  
"Earth powers? Such as vhat?"  
  
"She can make plants grow for one...or if she's sad its said that plants around her wilt."  
  
Kurt cringed slightly, feeling suddenly horrible for the girl he had yet to meet...and for the plants left in the wake of her sorrow.  
  
"Anything else I should know about 'er?"  
  
Storm nodded.  
  
"Yes. She can also cause and control earthquakes, and manipulate the landscape. Even the professor isn't sure just how much power she possesses over the Earth."  
  
Kurt was awestruck by this news, not because he feared what terrible power she might have, but it awe that she hadn't somehow managed to destroy the planet during the rough years as a teenager that he himself bleakly remembered. This brought him to his next thought.  
  
"You said she vas older, right?"  
  
Storm nodded.  
  
"Yes I did."   
  
"'Ow old is older?"  
  
"Twenty or twenty one I think."  
  
Nodding, Kurt watched as an orange tainted blossom floated through the air, landing in Storms blizzard white hair. Storm noticed him looking at her and smiled.  
  
"What?"  
  
Kurt pointed to the top of his head, still watching the flower in her hair as a tiny periwinkle butterfly landed on it, creating a serene picture of perfect beauty. Storm rolled her eyes up and looked above her. She went to pluck whatever it was out of her hair, but Kurt began shaking his head.  
  
"No, no."  
  
He said in a hushed voice, reaching over and pulling Storms miniature mirror out of a hidden pocket in her cap and holding it so that Storm could see. She smiled, and reached up slowly, picking the flower up and cupping it in her hand without frightening the butterfly. She looked at the beautiful sight until the small butterfly finally fluttered away, carried by a soft breeze. Storm left the flower follow much the same path, not stopping it as the breeze took it as well.   
  
The day was still young, the sun not even at the noon hour yet and idol talk of things past was all they had gotten accomplished. Kurt finally forced his mind to focus on the soon to be student Willow.  
  
"Storm, is 'dere anything else I need to know about my job 'dat I don't already know?"  
  
Storm pondered for a moment.  
  
"Well, you need to know that you might have multiple new students at one time, not just one."  
  
Her eyes roamed to the sky, as if the answers were written on the clouds.  
  
"I think Xavier covered most everything else."  
  
She stated as her gaze returned to terra firma. Kurt nodded.  
  
"Do you really think 'dat 'de other students might accept me more easily?"  
  
Storm smiled brightly.  
  
"Of course. Rogue has been passing your god name again."  
  
"Vhat does 'de rest of 'de staff think of 'dis new position."  
  
"Most agreed. Scott, of course, was skeptical. Don't worry about him though, he's still taking it pretty hard."  
  
"I know. Rogue 'nd I talked to 'im late last night."  
  
Storms bright smile faded.  
  
"Was he ok?"  
  
Kurt nodded.   
  
"I talked to 'im and 'e vent back inside. I 'aven't seen 'im yet today."  
  
Storm sighed, worried about Scott. Kurt watched her for a moment, but decided against saying anything. He turned and looked behind him, for something seemed wrong. Not immediately wrong, but an impending sort of wrong, just waiting to happen.  
  
"Kurt...are you ok?"  
  
Storm's voice called out to him. Whirling back around to face the concerned looking lady, Kurt nodded.  
  
"Just a funny feeling...'dat's all."  
  
Strom eyed him suspiciously.  
  
"Your sure?"  
  
He nodded a silent answer. There was no need to alarm her about a feeling, if it turned into something more than a feeling later he would be far from alright, but that was later. Right now, there was only peace and silence. Storm was reluctant to let the subject be dropped so easily, but seeing that Kurt was unwilling to talk more she allowed it to slide without another word. The breeze stopped, and more flowers of orange and cream hue fell down around Storm, showering her with natures purest beauty. One section of grass didn't stop rustling however. Kurt glanced out of the corner of his eye to see Logan approaching them. Storm smiled, waving gracefully to him. Kurt turn and simply nodded his own greeting across the shortening distance between them. Logan raised a hand then replaced it at his side. Both watched the wanderer approach, falling silent until at last Logan was within ear shot.   
  
"Hello Logan."  
  
"Hey Storm, Kurt. What are you two doing all the way out here, huh? I though I was the only one who ever came out here."  
  
"Kurt has just been employed as a guide and support for newly accepted students Logan."  
  
Storm stated, avoiding his question all together. Logan glanced down at Kurt, who still sat on the ground.   
  
"Well then I suppose I should offer my congratulations blue boy."  
  
Logan said, smirking. Kurt grinned, knowing that Logan was just joking around.  
  
"Thanks Volfie."  
  
Kurt retorted in the same good nature. Logan gave a stifled laugh, turning back to Storm.   
  
"So 'Ro, ya never did answer my question."  
  
"I was answering Kurt questions about his first student and his new job."  
  
Storm stated bluntly. Logan nodded.  
  
"So who's the first victim?"  
  
"Her names Willow, and she possesses earthen powers.  
  
Logan looked over at Kurt.   
  
"Sound like you got your work cut out for ya already. Tree hugger types are also so touchy about every little thing ya say to 'em and..."  
  
He caught Storms annoyed glare and shut up. Kurt placed a hand in front of his mouth to hide the wide smile and muffle the laugh. Logan shrugged.  
  
"Fine 'Ro, fight the truth...but you know I'm right."  
  
Storm shook her head.   
  
"Could you please just behave for once Logan?"  
  
"Now why would I go and do a thing like that 'Ro?"  
  
Just to taunt her, Logan placed a thick cigar in the corner of his mouth and lit it.   
  
"There's to be no smoking in here Logan."  
  
Storm found herself hit square in the face by a smoke ring. Coughing and batting the tar tainted air away from her face, she glared at Logan again.  
  
"I'm warning you Logan..."  
  
Kurt scooted away from wolverine, his eyes watching the rapidly gathering black clouds above only Logan.  
  
"Whatcha gonna do about it 'Ro? You can't use any of your powers here either...you'll hurt the trees."  
  
The last part was spoken like a real life tree hugger, far from Logan's usual voice. He began to chuckle to himself... but in an instant he was drenched by rain and his cigar was worthless. Storm sneered at him.  
  
"Can't use my powers, eh Logan? You seem to forget so quickly that trees like a good rain. For a nature boy you sure aren't to woods smart."  
  
Logan mocked her laugh.  
  
"Yeah yeah, you got me 'Ro. Ha ha...very funny."  
  
The trio remained there, laughing and joking until it was almost dark. Storm was the first to retire back to the institute. Logan and Kurt didn't linger more than a few minutes before Logan decided that it was time to scan the perimeter, acting as a guard for the school before dark from the one large gang of mutant haters that had recently moved into the city. Kurt watched him leave, taking a moment to admire the beauty of the moonlight bathed trees in full bloom before returning to the back garden to his tree. 


	5. Night Terrors

~* *sigh* Copyrighted to Marvel Comics excpet the plot, Kia, Aurora and Willow, who are copyrighted to me. Ok, now comes one of my personal favorite chapters so far, the introduction of Kia. I find it sad, probably because I wrote it and I seem to be the only one that understands my thought process...but thats besides the point. Enjoy! ~*  
  
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Chapter 5--Night Terrors  
  
The night air was cool and crisp, chiller than most of the spring nights had been lately. Kurt drew his cloak closer to him as a stronger gust of winds tore through the tree, whistling. The stars were covered by a spindly cloud mask, quite disappointing for one who stargazed nightly. A worried look rested upon Kurt's face, the feeling of impending wrong was worse now...much worse. He turned to watch Logan prowling towards the front gates, making his last few rounds of the night. The night was beginning to get quiet...too quiet. The wrong feeling was charging forward, full force, and only time would tell what terrors it might bring with it.   
  
It was just after eleven at night when Kurt was roused from light sleep by the screaming of tires in the narrow alley just on the other side of the stone wall barrier. The glow of red brake lights sprung over the top of the ten foot or more wall, and harsh voices stated something among themselves. Then there was a squeak of rusty door springs and much stomping, followed by the sound of chains. The sounds of a quick struggle took place, then the car doors slammed. Just before the car peeled away, a voice shouted over the wall.  
  
"ROT IN HELL MUTANTS!"  
  
The car tires screamed again, and the red lights disappeared. Kurt teleported to the top of a tree to see the car speeding away. It had the now famous anti-mutant gangs symbol on the hood and trunk of the car. The symbol was a graphic scene of a mutant being beaten to death. Kurt grimaced at the sight, then looked below to insure that they hadn't left any of their members to attack the children inside. All he discovered was a bundle of white, wrapped in thick tire chains and tethered down to the middle of the alley by a series of ropes. Kurt climbed down through the branches with amazing grace for a man of his height and weight. The bundle was trembling, muffled sobs emitted from an unseen face. Kurt jumped down to the top of the wall, looked around to insure that the gang had taken all its members, then climbed down the wall and slowly approached the shivering for. As he got closer, the tear stained face of a small girl was seen buried into the dirt of the alley, the heavy chains too much for her to lift. The white bundle was a t-shirt, three or four sizes too big for her tiny frame. The sleeves had been cut off so that it was more tank top like, but the arm holes came down to the little ones rib cage. The moon cast a shadow on her ribs, which stuck out horribly. The shirt almost completely covered the pair of blue jean shorts she wore. The clothing and apparent lack of food told Kurt immediately that she must have been an orphan before, the gang wouldn't have left her alive long enough to starve her. He took a step closer, but her feral looking blue/green eyes shot up at him, wide and fearful. He kneeled down, and she sobbed, sharp little fangs gleaming in the moonlight as claw tipped fingers racked at the rope in front of her. Her face was swollen and bruised, her arms cut and bleeding. Beside her was a crude note, one that stated "Your Next" scrawled in the child's own blood. They had meant for her to die before being found. She cried uncontrollably, trying to get away from Kurt but too weak to move the chains. Kurt raised his hands slowly, talking to her in a calm voice.  
  
"It's going to be alright... I'm 'ere to 'elp you."  
  
She whimpered softly through black and blue lips. Kurt realized that the only way to reach her was to talk to her. He made sure to let his own fangs show as he spoke, hoping that maybe the similarity would create a bond.  
  
"It's all going to be alright little one. My name is Kurt. Can you tell me yours?"  
  
She watched him, still fearful, but nodded. Forcing her lips to part, a muffled "Kia" escaped her. Kurt nodded.  
  
"I'm going to get you free, alright? Zen I'll let you come to me, I promise."  
  
She reluctantly nodded. Kurt inched slowly closer, cutting through the ropes like butter with the blade sides of his tail. Then he reached down and picked the mass of chains up off of her, tossing them aside. Kia scrambled backwards, watching him as he crouched on the ground.  
  
"It's alright."  
  
He kept reassuring her.  
  
"I promise I'm going to 'elp you. Can you tell me vhat 'dey did?"  
  
She nodded slowly, and tried to form words.  
  
"They hit me. I was looking for someone with food and they caught me."  
  
She began to sob again.  
  
"They hit me with chairs and cut my arms. Then they brought me here, called me a mutant freak and told me to die..."  
  
She shivered with cold and terrible fear. She had been slowly inching closer to Kurt, suddenly feeling vulnerable in the alley so far away from him. Kurt's eyes melted with sorrow to hear that such innocents had suffered so much.  
  
"Did 'dey do anything else?"  
  
He asked nervously, glad to see her gingerly shake her head. Good, he thought to himself, only a punching bag... By this time she was only a few feet away from him. Kia began glancing repeatedly back and forth, up and down the only entrance and exit to the alley.   
  
"Your safe vith me, little Kia. I promise no one vill 'urt you as long as I'm 'ere."  
  
Kia inched closer, through her fear and pain filled eye exhaustion began to show. She wobbled lightly on her feet, her little legs about to give way in her weakness. She took her last remaining energy and climbed up on Kurt's knee, wrapping her bloodstained arms around his neck and hugging him.  
  
"I'm scared."  
  
She whimpered, sobbing lightly. Kurt gently placed on arm around her and hugged her back.  
  
"Your safe."  
  
He looked up over the wall, feeling her place her head wearily on his chest, the top of her head just under his chin.  
  
"Can I take you back to 'de school so some of my friends can 'elp you feel better?"  
  
Kia nodded slowly.  
  
"Yes daddy."  
  
Kurt was stunned by the word that escaped her last.  
  
"Vhy did you call me 'daddy'?"  
  
"'Cause you care about me more than anyone else, daddy Kurt."  
  
Her voice was fading as she was slipping into mandatory sleep, finally feeling safe with Kurt. He hugged her shivering body close to him, letting her go for only a moment to pull a loose end of his cloak over her trembling form. He slowly scaled up and back over the wall, not wanting to scare her by teleporting. He walked steadily yet with urgency through the grass, not wanting to wake her up but knowing he had too.  
  
"Kia."  
  
He said softly.  
  
"Kia, I need you to keep talking to me, ok?"  
  
She shifted a little, then he felt the side of her head move in a nod.  
  
"Ok."  
  
She said sleepily. Kurt began to jog, being careful not to jar her too much.   
  
He burst through the door to the kitchen, Bobby and Rogue both jumped out of their chairs. Two spoons were buried in a carton of ice cream where they had been sitting. Kurt looked at them as they rushed over to inspect the small form clinging for her very life around his neck. Rogue tried to brush Kia's hair from her face, but the child gave a muffled scream and recoiled, burying her face under Kurt's neck.  
  
"Daddy..."  
  
She whined in a pathetic voice.   
  
"Don't let them hit me..."  
  
Kurt placed a hand on the back of her head, stroking her soft copper brown hair gently.  
  
"It's ok Kia. 'Des are my friends, 'dey vill 'elp you."  
  
She shook her head.  
  
"Don't let them take me away..."  
  
Her voice was tear riddled. Kurt nodded.  
  
"I von't let anyone take you Kia, I promise."  
  
Rogue shot a glance over to the still frozen in shock Bobby. She was extremely confused about why the little girl was calling Kurt her father, but now was obviously not the right time to ask. Bobby finally forced himself to break his gaze with the crying child and looked at Rogue, baffled. Rogue threw her hands at him to make him move.  
  
"Hurry and go get everyone up! I'll go find Logan."  
  
They both tore down the halls, leaving Kurt cradling the sobbing Kia in his arms.  
  
"'Deir going to go get you 'elp, ok?"  
  
"Ok."  
  
Rogue was the first back with Logan. The big man ran faster than Rogue, rushing through the door. He came to a dead stop upon seeing the bloody child in Kurt's arms.  
  
"What the hell..."  
  
He muttered under his breath. Kurt felt Kia cringe at Wolverines voice, but she refused to look at anyone. Logan reached out to take her, but Kurt turned to the side to avoid him.   
  
"Kurt hand..."  
  
Kurt interrupted.  
  
"No Logan. I promised her that I vouldn't let anyone else take her."   
  
Logan gave a low snarl, then looked at Kia. She had raised her feral eyes to look at him, and when his eyes drifted down to her she cringed and pulled Kurt's cloak over her face. Storm, Scott, and Bobby ran into the kitchen. Kurt looked at them.   
  
"Lead 'de vay."  
  
Storm wanted to take a better look at the child first, but Kia had a death grip on Kurt's cloak. She settled for running down the winding hallways with the rest of the group at her heals and into the hospital like room. Xavier was already there.   
  
"Bring her over here."  
  
He instructed calmly. Kurt brought her over, setting her on the cot, but never letting his arm leave from under her chin and wrapping around her shoulder. He couldn't have let her go even if he wanted to, for she had even more of a death grip on his arm than she had had on the now released cloak. Her eyes were held shut, not wanting to look at anyone.  
  
"Don't let them hurt me."  
  
Kurt drew her closer to him for a minute.  
  
"'Dese are friends. You are safe 'ere."  
  
He pushed her back to where she had been. Xavier watched the child before speaking to her.   
  
"I'm Professor Xavier Kia. I'm going to help you, but it may sting a little. Is that ok."  
  
"Don't take me away from my daddy!"  
  
She wailed. Logan raised an eyebrow and looked at Kurt. Pointing a finger from the girl to Nightcrawler he gave a questioning look.  
  
"...Daddy?"  
  
He asked Kurt. Kurt began to explain but the professor beat him there.  
  
"Young Kia is mentally unstable right now. The extension of kindness and protection from Kurt combined with her need to feel secure and her past as an orphan triggered a mechanism in her brain to associate Kurt with a parental role. Thus she is calling him her father. She will more than likely keep doing that most of her life, such trauma at a young age is never forgotten easily."  
  
Logan looked at the girl, then back at Kurt. But Kurt was busy helping Storm apply antibiotic ointment to her cuts and bruises, then placing bandages over the cuts. she flinched every once and a while, but no pain was as bad as what she had just lived through, and she remained mostly unfazed. While Storm and Kurt were busy, Rogue had pulled Kia's hair out of her face to allow easier access to the bruised and swollen area.   
  
Kia lashed out at Rogue, but feeling that she wasn't there to tear her off Kurt's arm, she relaxed. Bobby and Logan hung back, not wanting to interfere, giving confused looked from Kia to Kurt and back again. Bobby leaned closer to Logan so only he could hear the whisper.  
  
"That kid must be more than a little mentally unstable if she thinks he's her dad."  
  
Logan nodded in strong agreement. Scott looked at them in disbelief from a shadowy corner, and suddenly walked out. Unfortunately, Rogue had overheard them. She shot Bobby an almost hateful look.   
  
"This poor child has just had all hell beaten out of her and your being supportive by calling her insane?"  
  
She snapped at him. While in the confusion of the battle of wills Kia pulled her hair away from Rogue's gloved hands and, keeping her crying eyes closed, used Kurt's arm like a guide rope until she had crawled back over to him blindly and was nestled up against him. Kurt gave a weak smile.  
  
"Kia,"  
  
he began kindly,  
  
"You can stay right 'ere vith me, but I need you to turn so 'dat Storm can clean your face."  
  
For a moment the child shook her head no, then began to notice that her face and neck really did hurt more than before, and reluctantly turned around to Storm. She kept her back pressed against Kurt's stomach and chest, a way of reassuring herself that he was still there. Slowly she opened her eyes, looking at the kindly faces of Storm, Rogue, and Xavier. Out of the corner of her eye she saw the glaring face of Logan and the now worried face of Bobby as he watched Rogue. She tilted her head back and looked up at Kurt in the well lit room, but showed no surprise or fear at all to his blue exterior. She felt Storm gently touch a long, shallow cut at the base of her jaw and tried to jump back only to find that Kurt was in her way. Storm recoiled her hand.  
  
"Oh, I'm sorry."  
  
She held something out in her other hand so that Kia could see it.  
  
"Can I see your neck? I need to put this on your cut to make it feel better."  
  
She indicated the small plastic tube in her hand. Kia eyed her warily, and only tilted her head back again when Kurt placed his hands on her shoulder's. She placed her own little blood encrusted hands over his, biting her bottom lip as Storm smeared the cold stinging ointment on her neck. Storm leaned closer to get a better look at the wound. When she looked back at the new foster parent her eyes were lightly misted with tears.  
  
"Vhat is it?"  
  
Kurt asked her nervously  
  
"They tried to make her die slowly by just barely cutting into her jugular veins."  
  
Kurt looked down into young and confused feral eyes as Storm continued to talk.  
  
"She's lost a lot more blood than we first though Kurt..."  
  
She leaned closer to him.  
  
"....She might not live...."  
  
Kurt gently squeezed Kia's shoulders, but shook his head at Storm.  
  
"No...no, she is a fighter. She vouldn't 'ave survived 'is long if she vasn't."  
  
The child looked at Storm, then back at Kurt. She looked more awake in the light, but even more pale. Kurt gave a weak smile at the only creature on earth that might willingly have adopted him as a father figure. He shook his head again, his smile brightening. Kia glanced over at Storm with a certain level of hate.  
  
"Daddy will protect me, he won't let me die."  
  
She protested strongly. Storm stepped back.  
  
"Well, I never meant that...."  
  
Xavier was the one to interfere this time.  
  
"She should be fine in Kurt's care. It will be five days until Willow gets here, so he will have all day to tend to young Kia. And by the time Willow gets here, the new semester begins, so if Kia is well enough we can enroll her into the school since she now has chosen herself a guardian."  
  
Storm wanted to protest, opening her mouth to speak. In her eyes was a reflecting of what seemed sorrow, as if she had wished the child had clung to her instead. Kia stuck her tongue out at the white haired woman, her mischievousness showing even in her illness. Storm closed her mouth and gave a stunned look at the young girl. Rogue laughed out loud, not meaning to initially. When Storm sent a glare her way, Rogue didn't attempt to muffle her laughter.  
  
"She sure told you Storm!"  
  
She finally burst out, laughing even harder. Logan turned to leave.  
  
"To much bonding going on in here."  
  
He muttered aloud as he looked over to Kia, who was now in Kurt's arms again with her fragile arms wrapped around his neck and her head laying on his shoulder.  
  
"I'm outta here."  
  
Rogue looked over in time to see him walk out the door and waved.  
  
"Bye Logan!"  
  
Storm was still busy giving Kia hurt looks to even notice the wanderer taking his leave. Xavier glanced up at Storm and smiled.  
  
"It just wasn't meant to be you to find her...I'm sure that's what Kurt would tell you should you have said anything anyway. Kia is in good hands, don't worry."  
  
Storm gave him a disbelieving glance. The professor only looked to Kurt and the others.  
  
"I suggest you all get back to bed soon. Kia needs her rest and she can't sleep with all of you around I'm sure."  
  
Bobby looked over at him, but walked over to Kia. He leaned down to be on eye level with her. Storm, Rogue and Xavier all left just moments later. "Hey there. I'm Bobby. Sorry about what I said, ok?"  
  
Kia eyed him for a minute, then swiped at him with a clawed hand and smiled.  
  
"I forgive you."  
  
She snickered.  
  
Kurt smiled, nodding a little to thank Bobby and walked out the door himself to get back out into the garden. Bobby ran after him though.  
  
"Don't you think you'd better go to a dorm room or something? If that gang dropped her off they'll probably come back soon to check and see if she's still there. And if they see you holding her in a close tree, they'll shoot you and her both, no doubt."  
  
Kurt slowly realized that Bobby was more than just slightly correct. Knowing that Kurt didn't have his own room yet, Bobby began to lead them to his room. Pyro had left, so there was no one else in his room anyway.  
  
"My room has a window sill seat if you want to stay there tonight."  
  
Kurt shook his head, he already had another place in mind. Bobby shrugged.  
  
"If you change your mind, you know where I am."  
  
Kurt nodded and watched Bobby jog down the wall. Kia had already fallen asleep, murmuring softly in her sleep. Kurt felt bad, the way she murmured, she was reliving being attacked in the one place he could not protect her, in her dreams. As he walked down the halls to a set of spiral stairs he softly sang a church hymn in German, hoping just hearing his voice would bring him into her dream. Slowly she stopped murmuring, and smiled lightly, coiling her arms just a little more tightly around his neck as she slept on.  
  
Outside the institute, Logan prowled around the large barrier walls, every sense as keen as possible. He had put himself on high alert, for he too knew the danger of the gang returning to insure the job was finished. He smirked to himself, pausing for a minute and looking between the knuckles on one fisted hand. He smirked and pressed on...the gang would have more than a wall to overcome if they came back, and the latter of the two was his indestructible steel claws. Every so often he let his thoughts wander to Kia. 'Poor kid.' He thought to himself. But he knew already that Kurt was the best choice out of the bunch for her to cling too. The new mutant needed a better reason than guilt to stay, Kia was like an angel in Logan's eyes. She had spunk even when she was near death, not to mention a sense of humor. He had to agree with Kurt in that she'd pull through this just fine.  
  
Sitting on the steps, still cradling Kia tenderly in his arms and humming to her, Kurt flashed his gaze over to a window outside every once and a while. He sighed at his own paranoia, he knew that he could easily avoid attack by teleporting and bringing Kia with him. But he was still nervous now that she had more or less placed her thus far short life in his hands and entrusted him with her care and looking to him for comfort and protection from the evil and unknown. He watched the bandage less cut on her throat, making sure to keep her head tilted so that the ruptured skin touched. Only tiny threads of blood had trickled from the jugular wound, a good sign in Kurt's eyes.  
  
"Lord vatch after 'is child...."  
  
He muttered aloud as he gazed at her black and blue face.   
  
"I'm sure he will."  
  
A voice answered behind him. Kurt glanced back, refraining from jumping so he didn't wake Kia. Scott sat on the step beside Kurt, and looked at Kia.  
  
"She's one lucky kid to make it this long with those kind of cuts you know."  
  
Kurt smiled at Scott, having almost forgotten that he had followed them down to the hospital room earlier. Scott sighed.  
  
"I'm real sorry about the way I was acting last night. Your right though, I have to let go."   
  
Kia rosed up from her sleep as she heard the hushed voices of Kurt and Scott drone on. Slowly she opened her eyes, the way she was facing she saw Scott's red glasses, like the eyes of a demon glowing softly in the night. She jumped, ending up completely curled around Kurt's neck. He grabbed her before she toppled backwards down the stairs, and sat her on his knee. She looked at Scott with wild eyes. He gave her a sheepish grin.  
  
"Hi there."  
  
He said softly.  
  
"Sorry if I woke you up."  
  
Kia sat statue still for a moment, studying his red glasses with interest. She reached out to pull them off, but Scott grabbed the lens frame, closed his eyes tightly shut and pulled the glasses off himself.  
  
"There, see. I have real eyes."  
  
"Then why are they closed?"  
  
"Because if I open them without my shades I would fry you to a crisp."  
  
"Why would you want to do that."  
  
Scott took a moment to chuckle at her inquisitiveness.  
  
"I wouldn't want to, its just the power I have. I can shoot beams from my eyes."  
  
"EW!"  
  
She squealed. Kurt laughed at her before she turned and looked at him.  
  
"Then what can you do daddy?"  
  
"I can teleport."  
  
"What's that? Is it gross like his?"  
  
She pointed at Scott, who had replaced his glasses in front of his eyes. Kurt shook his head.  
  
"No. Here, I'll show you vhat it is. Stay vith Scott, ok?"  
  
She nodded, crawling across the step and up onto Scott's knee, watching Kurt. The usual midnight blue mist consumed him, a small bamf sounded him off, and he reappeared in front of the window and back to where he had been. Kia cheered, though was quickly shushed by Scott.  
  
"'Dat is vhat teleporting is."  
  
Kurt announced proudly.   
  
"And vhat is your power?"  
  
"Kitty!"  
  
Kurt gave her a confused look, but she was already beginning to grow light gray with darker gray striped fur and whiskers. Soon it was no longer Kia, but a small gray tabby cat on Scott's knee. The kitten beamed, and morphed back into Kia.  
  
"See? Kitty powers!"  
  
She seemed proud of herself, receiving a hushed applause from Scott. Kurt smirked and nodded, but was not so sure that a cat was the only creature she could mimic if she was anything like Mystique.   
  
Far away from the Institute, in what seemed just another abandoned storage building, there was a buzz of excitement. Inside the building was a trap door, which upon being entered lead down into an underground mansion. The huge place belonged to the Shadow Stalkers, the newest gang in town, the gang that had nearly killed Kia. Down below the surface the boss was in a meeting with his most trusted members. The boss, simply called Doc by his thugs, had yet to be aware that they had only added a new member to the mutant society that might later seek vengeance. Doc sat in an overly cushioned chair, his privelege...since he was not only the brains, but the financial support. He had inherited a family fortune, making him one of the richest people on Earth. On either side of him was a massive Doberman pincher. Three shadowy human figures loomed in chairs opposite Doc's, only the whites of their eyes gleaming.   
  
"The operation went as planned?"  
  
One of the three nodded.  
  
"The girl's as good as dead now. No one was outside."  
  
"Your positive of that?"  
  
The three looked at each other and talked in hushed voices. Doc ground his teeth together, any pause in conversation always indicated bad news.  
  
"You did have your men check over the wall....right?"  
  
He snarled. Another of the three gulped.  
  
"Well, sir, you see..."  
  
"FOOLS!"  
  
Doc roared. The doberman's at his sides laid their ears back, pearly white fangs bared in unison with their masters anger.  
  
"So what did you do with the mutant girl once you got her there?"  
  
"Well, we tied her to the road, put about a hundred pounds of chains on her and left the note you had us write, Doc sir."  
  
Doc nodded.  
  
"And then?"  
  
The three looked at each other again.  
  
"Then...we left."  
  
Doc slammed his fist on the arm of his chair, the dogs slunk back away from him in his rage.  
  
"You just left! You idiots, you were supposed to kill her! Didn't you cut her throat like I told you?"  
  
"Yeah, sir."  
  
"How deep?"  
  
He snapped at the three, who cowered in their chairs like frightened children themselves.  
  
"We don't know, the rest of the boys did that part."  
  
Doc looked down at his fist, the veins in his neck popping out in anger that he withheld.  
  
"Get out!"  
  
He roared, standing suddenly and whipping his hand to point at the door. The three stumbled over the backs of their chairs as the dogs suddenly sprang at them, chasing them out of their masters office. Doc slid back into his chair, rubbing his forehead .  
  
"What kind of imbeciles did I hire? They can't even kill a child properly..."  
  
The dogs padded back to his sides, each laying their heads on his knee and looking up at him with deadly red eyes. He reached down at stroked the larger of the two hounds, a pitch black doberman. The red doberman looked at the black enviously.   
  
"Well, no matter. We'll get the girl soon boys, then maybe you can actually have a taste of mutant flesh again." 


	6. Free Time

~* All except the plot, and made-up characters (Kia, Aurora, and Willow) are copyrighted to Marvel Comics.~*  
  
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Chapter 6--Free Time  
  
Kurt woke to find Kia almost nose to nose with him, watching him curiously as he slept. He smiled at her, sitting up from his reclined position as he had fallen asleep leaning his back against the stairs, and blinking a few times until everything came into full focus.  
  
"I'm hungry."  
  
Kia informed him, though Kurt didn't need to be reminded...her stomach had been rumbling constantly almost all night after Scott had went back to bed. Searching the nearby walls for a clock, Kurt looked at what time in was. 5:29 a.m. was what the digital clock read. He rubbed his eyes, suddenly feeling terribly sleepy.  
  
"Do you alvays get up so early?"  
  
He asked, not sure that he could keep up with her sleep schedule if it was like this. Kia smiled widely and nodded.  
  
"Uh huh. All the bakeries open now and sometimes they would give me a donut because they said they felt sorry for me, so I always wake up earlier."  
  
Kurt leaned his head back into the step above him, trying not to be frustrated with his new cling on child.  
  
"Kia...ve live 'ere, ve don't need to get up so early. 'De food is alvays in 'de kitchen."  
  
Kia's eyes lit up.  
  
"You guys always have food here?"  
  
Kurt nodded as Kia jumped off of his stomach, where she had been sitting and gingerly galloping down the stairs. Once she got to the bottom, she realized she didn't know where she was going or what she was looking for.  
  
"Um...daddy?"  
  
"Yes..."  
  
Kurt answered her patiently, really quite amused by her actions.  
  
"What's a kitchen and where is it?"  
  
Kurt closed his eyes and laughed to himself. Kia tilted her head to the side like a puppy hearing a strange noise for the first time. When Kurt opened his eyes again she was debating on what side of the hallway she should investigate first. Kurt got up and walked down the steps, scooping Kia up in his arms as he passed her. She glanced up at him, a confused look on her face.  
  
"You are still too 'urt to go valking around too much. I'll show you vere the kitchen is now 'dat I'm avake."  
  
"Wasn't my fault you were oversleeping."  
  
Kurt chuckled at her.  
  
"Ve 'ave got to change your sleep pattern..."  
  
He yawned wearily as if to prove his point.  
  
"I von't last long if you keep 'is up."  
  
Kia giggled at him, suddenly finding herself in a large room where she had been last night, and seen the two people eating something out of a big box.   
  
"I know where we are!"  
  
She announced happily. Kurt carried her over to the counter and opened a box that contained a few donuts inside. The box of twelve only had two missing, telling Kurt that  
  
Kia hadn't been the only early riser.   
  
Handing the glazed donut out to her, he noticed that her eyes were fixed upon the box, mouth ajar in shock. He held the donut a few inches in front of her face to get her attention. She looked up at him, ignoring the food for the time being.  
  
"You always have that much?"  
  
She asked in awe, receiving a nod from her foster father. She looked back to the food in his hand and took it, eating greedily. Kurt watched her, sitting her down on the counter.  
  
"Take it easy, you vill make yourself sick if you try and eat too much now."  
  
The sentence was hardly over and Kia had consumed the entire donut, and already had another one in her hand.  
  
"But what if its not here tomorrow!"  
  
She protested. Kurt opened the closest cabinet, filled with boxes upon boxes of fresh donuts, and cereal as well as poptarts and breakfast bars. Kia nearly dropped her second donut.   
  
"I don't think ve vill be running out any time soon. Besides, 'is is a school and we 'ave to 'ave enough for all the students."  
  
Kia quickly consumed her second donut and began to reach for a third but Kurt picked her back up.  
  
"'Dat enough for now."  
  
Before she could protest he explained.  
  
"Ve can come back when everyone else is avake and eat vith 'em, alright?"  
  
Kia sighed, but nodded as she watched the box of donuts pulled away from her reach as Kurt carried her back out of the kitchen. She turned around, climbing up so that she sat on his shoulders, getting a better view of the hallways she had to take to get back into the kitchen. This didn't go without notice from Kurt however.  
  
"I know vhat your doing Kia. I don't vant to find 'dree empty boxes of donuts tomorrow morning, understand?"  
  
"Yessss daddyyyy."  
  
She said in her sweetest, most innocent voice. Kurt smirked, knowing somehow that he wouldn't find three empty boxes, maybe only two boxes empty by six in the morning tomorrow.  
  
Rogue walked down the spiral stairs where Kurt and Kia had stayed, making her way silently towards the kitchen where she knew she'd find a fresh supply of her favorite kinds of poptarts...chocolate fudge. Usually she had always been beaten there by the younger children who would eat nothing but sugar for breakfast, leaving her to the disgusting breakfast bars that Storm seemed to live off of. But not this morning, she would be the first to open the box, she knew it. One reason she knew this was that there were no raised voices of squabbling first and second graders fighting over who got the last one, and no angry voice of Logan telling them to hand it over and he'd solve the problem for them. As she rounded the corner, she nearly ran right into Kurt. She back pedaled quickly to avoid hitting him when she saw that he had Kia on his shoulders. Kia looked down at her, her arms folded on top of Kurt's head and her head laying on her arms. She smiled brightly, lifting her head lightly and pulling a hand free to wave at Rogue. Rogue smiled back to her, looked at Kurt, not remembering him being up so early before. Kurt noticed Rogues look, and smirked.  
  
"Don't look at me, she's 'de one who vanted to be up 'is early."  
  
Rogue looked back up at Kia and smiled. The little girl had much of her skin color back, no longer the pasty pale she had been the other night. Also a hint of drying sugar glaze that usually topped a donut now occupied the rim of Kia's mouth.  
  
"Have a good breakfast I see."  
  
She joked. Kia grinned widely, licking the corners of her mouth gently.  
  
"Uh huh, it was good."  
  
She leaned forwards so that she could just see Kurt's forehead.  
  
"Are we allowed to go eat more now dad?"  
  
Kurt smirked up at her.   
  
"I said vhen everyone is up,not just Rogue."  
  
Kia sighed, laying her hand back on her folded arms. Rogue tried to muffle a giggle with her hands. Kurt noticed and smiled. "You should see 'er eat."  
  
He commented, glancing up at Kia.  
  
"She's like a black 'ole,nothing escapes her clutches."  
  
He snickered as Kia glared down at him. It took her a minute to fully understand what he had said, but it finally hit her.  
  
"Hey!"  
  
Kurt shrugged.  
  
"'Ave you ever SEEN yourself eat?"  
  
"No, why would I want to watch myself eat?"  
  
Kurt snickered.  
  
"Oh, no reason."  
  
Kia began to climb down from his shoulders, finding herself stuck when she was clinging onto his shoulder so she wouldn't fall. Kurt looked over his shoulder at her, a bit bemused, and slowly coiled his tail around her waist, making sure to keep the blade sides away from her. She let go as soon as she felt his tail give a light tug, and was gently suspended back down to the ground. She walked over to Rogue, tugging on the hem of her longer shirt to draw the teens attention down to a lower level. Rogue kneeled down beside her, and as instructed by the small girl, turned one cheek so that Kia could whisper into her ear. As the youths plan was relayed to her, Rogue smiled and nodded.   
  
"Ok, I'll see what I can do."  
  
Kia beamed up at her as Rogue stood back up and looked at the very confused Kurt.  
  
"Don't give me that look."  
  
Rogue teased.  
  
"Its private girl talk."  
  
Kia placed both hands over her mouth and tried to hide her laugh. Kurt looked at both of them, his curiosity beginning to get the better of him.  
  
"And vhat exactly does she vant?"  
  
He asked somewhat sternly. Rogue shrugged.  
  
"You'll see."  
  
Logan awoke suddenly, jumping up out of his bed. He gasped for air, looking frantically around the room. Nothing, he told himself, just another nightmare. Under his eyes were dark black rings from denying himself sleep. A better portion of the night had become dedicated to perimeter patrol after Kia had been found nearly dead. His thoughts slowly wandered to her, wandering if she had made it through the night and if so how she was now. He threw the remaining blankets that he hadn't already tossed off during the night over the side of the bed, grabbed a clean white tank top and jeans off the dresser top and went into the bathroom.  
  
Rogue sat in the kitchen, enjoying every peaceful bite of her poptart. Kurt and Kia sat across the counter from her, Kia eyeing the second poptart greedily and Kurt eating his own breakfast of a blueberry bagel. Every so often Kia's practiced thieves hand would shoot up and rip a piece off the opposite side of the bagel and consume it before Kurt could even look over at her. Each time Rogue would start to laugh at the youngsters antics. She broke the second poptart in half, holding one of the halves out for Kia to take.  
  
"Here, I can tell Kurt's going to need all the energy he can get to keep up with you, so you eat this and leave him alone for a while."  
  
Not one to pass up such a great deal, Kia eagerly nodded and snatched the half poptart from Rogue's hand. She didn't eat it as quickly as she had the other things she had eaten in the morning thus far. The main reason was because it had been given to her, Kurt couldn't take it from her or protest. And beside, poptarts were better than bagels in her mind any day.  
  
Stumbling down the stairs, Logan finally reached the bottom and wandered into the kitchen. He smiled at Rogue, then looked over to Kurt just in time to see Kia slink behind him with her half of a poptart. He smiled a little brightly.  
  
"Kid seems to be ok."  
  
He mumbled sleepily. Kurt smiled in return and Kia peeked from around him to look at Logan.  
  
"I remember you from last night too."  
  
She chimed in, taking a bite out of her treat. Logan turned from the cabinet where he had been digging around for the pans and smiled at her.  
  
"Yeah. Names Logan, kid. Who are you?"  
  
"Kia!" She announced in high spirits, showing sudden interest in what he was going to eat as he pulled out a large black pan. Turning on the stove, he placed the pan on it and got some butter and eggs out of the refrigerator. After he had got the butter to melt and had cooked the omelet, he got some cheese and bread out, slapping it all together to make a cheese omelet sandwich. Kia tilted her head as she watched him, scooting her chair inch by inch closer to his chair as he sat down at the counter. When she had finally made it to the annoying point of less than a foot away from his breakfast, Logan looked at her.  
  
"I don't think so kid."  
  
He placed his elbow on the table to deny her access to the sandwich before looking at Kurt.  
  
"Haven't you fed this kid yet Kurt?"  
  
Rogue began to laugh and Logan shot his gaze over to her. Rogue nodded.  
  
"Only around three times!"  
  
She finally burst out. Logan raised an eyebrow.  
  
"Three times?"  
  
Rogue nodded again.  
  
"Yup, three times. Kurt said she had two donuts, then she was stealing little bites of Kurt's bagel and conned me out of half a poptart to get her to let him eat in peace."  
  
Logan's other eyebrow raised and he looked down at Kia, who had taken the lack of attention as an opportunity to pull a hunk off of his sandwich. He picked it up, having only taken one bites himself, but was left with only a half of a sandwich after Kia had gotten her hands on it.  
  
"Damn..."  
  
He muttered, looking at the stick thin child and wondering where she was putting all the food she had been eating. She gazed up at him as he stared at her, giving a wide, fang-filled grin. Logan put the sandwich back on the plate and slid it over to her, and with a heavy sigh got up and started to make himself another one. Kia smirked widely, engulfing the sandwich then looking over at Logan.  
  
"Your a good cook."  
  
She said. Logan gave a small smile.  
  
"From what I've just heard about you, anyone is a good cook in your eyes, kid."   
  
Kia shrugged, dismayed to find that both Kurt and Rogue had finished their breakfasts. As Logan sat back down she eyed his new sandwich, but he glared at her.  
  
"Ok, now look. You just ate my first one...this is MINE."  
  
He pointed to himself.  
  
"Got that?"  
  
Kia sighed and nodded slowly, looking around the kitchen for some unguarded food item that she could confiscate. While she was busy Logan finally got to finish his own breakfast, standing back up.   
  
"Where are you going so early?"  
  
Rogue asked him curiously, a faint glimmer of worry that he would leave again was in her eyes. Even though he hadn't planned on telling them, he couldn't make Rogue worry.  
  
"The local bar is holdin' a cage fight tournament all day today. I'm going to go watch and see what kind of strength I might be up against."  
  
He gave a glance over at Kia.  
  
"And maybe I can find someone that attacked her. I got all their scents logged in."  
  
He gently tapped the side of his head. Rogue nodded slowly, but still her worried expression wouldn't fade.  
  
"Logan..."  
  
She called after him just before he got a chance to leave. He turned and looked at her. Rogue gave a weak smile to her closest friend.  
  
"Be careful, ok?"  
  
Logan nodded, turning and exiting the kitchen. But before he rounded the corner, his murmuring voice called back.  
  
"Always am kid." 


	7. Free for All

~* *stares at ceiling* lalalala....everything copyrighted to Marvel Comics. Plot, Kia, Aurora and Willow copyrighted to me....lalala*~  
  
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Chapter 7-- Free for All Brawl  
  
The base of the Shadow Stalkers was lacking the usual hidden guards that it most always had. Down below, in a room set aside especially for training, Doc was holding a competition to see who was the strongest. The four he would choose would fight in the days bar fights, because why expend his own fortune when his thugs could win the money needed for him? The fights were nearly over, just one more round to go. The three already selected sat off to the side, all of them dressed in chains and black, the uniforms the guards wore. The last fight ended with a low ranking rookie defeating the so far toughest thug. He was dressed in baggy cargo pipe jeans and a white muscle shirt. His short, spiky blonde hair was rimmed by a nike sweatband, as were his wrists. He held his clenched fists at his sides, looking at Doc for his approval. Doc smiled and nodded.  
  
"Well, well, nice to see that the new blood can stand his own."  
  
Doc mused, never letting his beady eyes leave the young mans.  
  
"What's your name?"  
  
Doc snapped at him, dropping the amused act. The young man snickered.   
  
"Maveric."  
  
Doc directed him to the group of the three guards with a grand sweep of his hand.   
  
"You better be ready to fight in a few hours again."  
  
Doc warned in a blood thirsty voice.  
  
"Because if you loose your first match, we'll leave you there to die."  
  
Maveric looked back at him, unafraid.  
  
"I'll be ready, the only dying that will be done is by those who oppose me."  
  
Doc snickered widely, looking at the surrounding group of onlookers before looking back to Maveric.  
  
"I like your way of thinking. Don't let me down...we stick to our word..."  
  
"And I stick to mine."  
  
Maveric stated bluntly before turning to leave. The group parted to make way for him as he walked back to his drab living quarters.  
  
Logan walked through the hallways, down into the underground garage. He passed by Scott's bike, his eyes on another bike. It was jet black with deep blood red flames rippling from the front to a few wisps in the back. Every metal part was the same shade of red as the flames, not silver. Logan beamed, he had finally gotten his own bike. He got on, revving up the engine while the hidden garage door opened before tearing out of the garage and in a flash was out the front gates. Even without the extreme speed button, his bike went much faster than Scott's, something Logan enjoyed rubbing in his face when Scott was being especially irritating. Curling through the winding road that led to the Institute with ease, the small town came rapidly into view. He reduced his speed as he entered into the town limits, winding around alleyways and behind abandoned buildings until finally he came upon a small building. It looked like a quaint little pub from the outside, no vulgarly too be seen. Parking his bike out of sight, then pressing a button that masked it to its surroundings, Logan strode through the door. He was greeted by the kindly face of a middle age bartender, who was beginning to go bald. The man looked at Logan and nodded. Glancing around at the empty bar, Logan smirked as the bartender began to speak.  
  
"What can I do ya for stranger?"  
  
"Here to see the fights."  
  
Logan growled slightly. The bartender snickered and nodded.   
  
"You know where they are then, down the hall and the last door on the left. You wanna beer to go?"  
  
Logan nodded, taking the bottle from the man and making his way down the hallway without another word. Upon opening the door in was pitch black, only a faint light from further down illuminated the black metal stairs. Logan proceeded down them, closing the door behind him. He reached about the fourth step down before the wall ended and became a ceiling. The downstairs room was three times, if not more, bigger than the little pub up above. It was far from quaint down here, dried splatters of blood dotted the walls, knives lined the walls as if to encourage after fight assassination attempts on the champion. Logan noticed a small group of six men already there, as well as a young woman sitting in the corner. In the group of men, one man had two big doberman pincher dogs on either side of him. Another man stood directly behind the one with the dogs, wearing dark glasses even in the dimmer lights. Three had the exact same uniforms on, each one had a snarling look on their faces as they got pumped for the fight. But the last one had regular Joe street cloths one, leave out the three nike sweatbands. Logan sat a good distance away from them, watching them out of the corner of his eye suspiciously. They didn't smell exactly like Kia's attackers...but they did have faint traces of the attackers scent around them. He directed his gaze over to the girl, wondering why she was there. She had black cargo pipe jeans that were flared. Her shirt was a black tank top, the sleeves and writing across her chest that read "Devil's Angel" were bright red. Her hair was also black with ice blue streaks, short crop cut in the back and long front bangs that lined the sides of her face like a veil. She pulled back one section of her bangs to reveal a completely pierced ear, and a lip piercing. She sat back, leaning against the wall with her arms folded. She turned to look up the steps as the door squeaked open again, the light hitting her neck just right to reveal scar after scar on her neck right where the jugular vein's located. Logan was suddenly impressed by her, she had obviously fought here before and become a champion once at least to earn so many typical assassin throat slashes like that.   
  
The young woman watched as a small crowd of drunken onlookers stumbled down the stairs, tripping over their own feet. Her ice blue eyes held a sudden hatred for them, and she looked away, finally noticing that Logan had been watching her. She turned towards him, a snarling look on her face as she snapped.  
  
"What?"  
  
Logan shrugged, holding his hands out to the side.  
  
"Can't a guy admire a female fighter anymore."  
  
"Shut it, unless your lookin for a fight with me."  
  
Logan smiled, chuckling to herself.  
  
"Like your attitude kid. What's your name?"  
  
The girl glared at him, then turned away, unwilling to speak or even look at Logan for the time being.  
  
Maveric glanced over at the girl, both surprise and anger rose in his eyes. Why was she here? He didn't want to have to beat up a girl... He sighed heavily, sitting down on the floor and warily watching the drunks pass by him, getting his hand stepped on once so he quickly placed his hands on his knees, looking at the slightly red boot mark left over his knuckles. He cursed under his breathe, looking back over at the young woman over in the corner. The door to upstairs opened again, and a small mob of tough looking fighters poured down the steps followed by the kindly looking bartender, except the man no longer had the plain shirt on, but the black and white striped shirt of a referee. Seeing the other fighters on his team walk forward, Maveric stood up and walked after them. To his dismay, the girl got up and walked over to the ref as well. The bartender began to speak.  
  
"Ok, you all look like you know the rules, every move goes, no weapons other than your bare fists. A knock out is a win, to surrender you gotta get knocked out. If you get killed...."  
  
He paused, eyes flickering to each fighter.  
  
"...too bad. You probably would've been killed by your buddies later."  
  
He turned his attention to the girl, taking her by the wrist and pulling her out of the shadows.  
  
"Aurora's our current champion. Beat her and your the new champ. But, as her champion duties, she chooses who fights who, so...Aurora?"  
  
He turned things over to her. She ripped her arm from his grasp with a snarl and took a step forward. In growling voice she spoke.  
  
"I don't care what you think of me...but if I even think your taking it easy on me if you get a chance to fight me your as good as dead. If you underestimate me...you'll die quicker."  
  
She glanced at the two teams, and pointed to one of the Shadow Stalker guards and a burly man from the mob.   
  
The fights went quickly, Maveric winning his first two fights and but loosing by a broken arm to the third. Doc had excused his death this time since he clearly would have won. It was now down to the biggest Shadow Stalker and Aurora. They had already been punching madly at each other for at least a half an hour, the guard was black and blue with bruises and Aurora was favoring her right leg, a swollen shut black eye was the only other war prize she had earned. Aurora's ice blue eyes were even more cold and heartless than they had been, the guard was obviously intimidated by her venomous gaze. Aurora had succeeded in finding his weakness...the simple fact that he was much to muscular for his own good and all the muscle mass made him slow. Her strategy was shifting from mostly punches to kicking out at his shins and knocking him over, letting his own weight and gravity do most of the damage. The big guard was too slow even for the limping girl, and he fell to her swift kicks repeatedly, only a few times catching Aurora in the side of the head with a desperate punch. But once he hit her square in the stomach, a stinging blow that knocked Aurora back quite a ways. Finally Aurora had had enough of his hair pulling and being slapped upside the head, jumping and kicking under his chin at the air way and continuing up to his jaw. The big man fell to his knees, grabbing at his throat and gasping to try and breathe, his jaw broken and leaving his mouth hanging wide open. In a final spinning kick, Aurora hit his square in the temple, knocking his over to the side of the cage, gagging and cringing until he finally passed out from lack of oxygen.   
  
Aurora stood in the middle of the cage, knees bent slightly and her hands on her knees, panting. The bartender walked over to her, forcing her fist into the air. The crowd of battered warriors and drunken onlookers booed loudly at the runt-looking woman who had been dubbed champion again, except for Maveric and Logan. They both noticed Aurora beginning to sway on her feet, and as the she let her fist unclench water began to pour from her palms, out of no were like she had stuck a water hose into her arm.   
  
The people gasped, but Doc's eyes gleamed in success. All had gone as planned...now they just needed a distraction so his guards could get a clean shot at killing her...  
  
"It's a mutant!"  
  
He screamed, standing up and pointing at her. Aurora's eyes were swimming dizzily, reaching up to her stomach with her free hand and pulling something small out...a needle that had been drained of whatever had once been in the syringe. The drunks were spurred only by the wild, frightened, and angry voices of the fighters. As the fighters made tried to make their way to the back to grab the knives from the walls, they found not only a barrier of dazed drunks, but now they were dumbfounded and had not sense of what they should be doing. This caused the long drawn out chain reaction that followed, one fighter hitting a drunk out of the way and into another drunk, who in turn struck out at anyone and the process continued until and unruly brawl had started. The few who did make it to the wall found it near impossible to make it back to the cage. The bartender had dropped Aurora's arm, and by loosing his support she practically lay on the bloody cage floor, but had miraculously managed to stay on her hands and knees, though she quivered and trembled terribly. Logan pushed and fought his way through the flock of baffled drunks, making it to the cage door, which the bartender had forgotten to unlock when he ran out, extending his claws, he slashed away the bars like they were butter, just enough for him to reach in and grab her arm. She tried to pull away from him, her eyes glazed over with a hazy white cloud that made her look almost like Storm when she was using her powers. Logan yanked her out of the cage, helping her place her arm around his shoulders and holding her up with one arm, the other hand held out in front of him with three indestructible claws to ward off blood thirsty mutant haters.   
  
Doc, his dogs, and body guard where suddenly no where to be seen, and with the two still standing guards busy trying to fight back the remaining half to the wall, Maveric was free to do as he pleased. He had been watching Logan ever since Aurora's powers had surfaced, somehow knowing that he hadn't been the only undetected mutant in the group. And now that not just one but two had surfaced, Maveric felt better. He ran over to Logan as the man fought off the surge after surge of drunkards attacks, keeping his distance.  
  
Finally he let his own mutant powers show. Suddenly the drunks, fighters, flying bits of broken glass and stray knives stopped...even the clock stopped except Maveric, Logan and Aurora. Maveric motioned for him to get going quickly, then noticed that one of the guards had been watching him run up to Logan. He looked at the man and made him stop.   
  
"They won't remember what goes on while their frozen, but as you run out just slash my side, ok?"  
  
Reaching the clear steps, Logan could no longer just drag Aurora through the crowd, picking her up in his arms and tromping up the steps, quickly followed by a few knifeless fighters. Crashing through and shattering the door that led upstairs, Logan stormed through the quiet upper level and smashed through the second door. Outside, he charged towards his camouflaged bike, pressing the button again and having it change back to normal. He gently placed Aurora in front of him. She was gasping for breathe, her eyes now completely white and her skin clammy. He revved up the bike, tearing out of the alleyways. From behind him there were suddenly rounds of gunshots, and bullets flew by him, catching him in the back and shoulders. A stray one caught Aurora in the arm, but she was struggling with a much worse problem to even notice the hot lead fired into her flesh. Logan growled and looked back.  
  
"Dammit!"  
  
He shouted into the wind, seeing a couple cars following him. He turned back around, trying to think of what to do. He couldn't just lead them back to the Institute, but that was were Aurora desperately needed to be right now. He reached down, pushing a bright red button and was nearly thrown off the back of the bike at the sudden acceleration. Leaving the cars behind him, Logan tried to take the less dusty alley's so as not to give away his co ordinance. The cars didn't stand a chance ,brakes squealed and the air was filled with smoke, fire, and the smell of burning rubber. Logan smirked. Served them right. With that he kept on his way to the Institute. Aurora's head fell back on his chest, her blank eyes looking up at him, pain-stricken and filled with doubt. Her once snarling voice was now a choking one, a good sign that the stuff injected into her was meant to suffocate her by inflaming her throat. Straining to talk, she looked up at Logan.  
  
"Where are we going?"  
  
Was the only sentence that made in past her lips before Logan glared at her.  
  
"Save your energy kid, we're gonna go get you help."  
  
Moments later they were at the front gates, Aurora's eyes were beginning to roll back into her head, her breathing was shallow and came only in faint wisps of breath. Logan left the bike in the middle of the front yard, not having time to park it. He picked Aurora up and ran inside, kicking the heavy doors out of his way.   
  
A shrill scream echoed, small form of Kia suddenly scrambling away from the small window on the opposite door and darting into the shadowy corner were two bright golden eyes became animated once again. Kurt pushed Kia behind him defensively, spiked tail poised and ready to be used as a weapon should the sudden intruder prove unfriendly. He was stopped dead by Logan's concerned glare.  
  
"Make yourself useful and go get Xavier down here!"  
  
He shouted, feeling Aurora's chest slowly starting to decline in the number of times it rose. Kurt paused for only a moment to see who or what Logan had drug in, then was gone, leaving Kia in the corner alone. She gave a low whimper, but quickly ran over to Logan.  
  
"Who's she?"  
  
Logan didn't answer the child, pushing her gently out of his way at the sound of a muffled 'bamf' from down the hallway. Kia was quick to pursue him after looking at the wide open door fearfully, trotting as best she could to keep up with Logan.   
  
Xavier and Kurt were in the rec room, Logan and Kia arrived just in time to see Kurt off again as he made his way to the hospital room, or so Logan guessed. Xavier motioned for Aurora to be brought over to him quickly, and Logan didn't hesitate to comply. Placing his fingertips on Aurora's temples, Xavier leaned close to her forehead and spoke gently to her telepathically.  
  
~Don't be afraid, I'm going to help you. What happened?~  
  
Aurora's glazed over eyes slowly seemed to try to come back into focus. The messages received in reply were broken, a result of her current state.  
  
~Fight...needle...so much pain...~  
  
Was all Xavier got before her eyes again slide out of focus, her mind out of reach. Blue mist exploded behind the wheelchair, to reveal Kurt holding a syringe in his hand. Xavier took it, carefully inserting it into Aurora's jugular vein and injecting the antidote to what ailed her. Logan followed Xavier and Kurt as the teleporter began to wheel the professor downstairs by what was undoubtedly a telepathic command. Logan followed, feeling relieved as he began to hear Aurora's breathing strengthen at a painfully slow rate. Kia trotted after them, growing quickly tired and making a leap of faith, catching Logan's ankle and maneuvering so that she sat on his boot, clinging to his shin and looking ahead to Kurt. It was obvious that she was debating whether or not she could make the leap from Logan to Kurt, so she stayed put and forced the already burdened Logan to adopt an awkward style of walking so that Kia wouldn't be kicked off or knock him off balance.When they got to the stairs, Logan sighed as Kurt teleported himself and Xavier down, wanting to yell 'Elf! Come get your kid!'. But he didn't, instead he temporarily released Aurora's legs and reached down, scooping Kia up with one powerful sweep of his arm and tossing her up on his shoulder while mumbling something. Once he had finally gotten situated again, he trotted quickly down the stair to catch up with Xavier and Kurt. He could hear Kia chuckling, and lightly shook his head.  
  
"Don't fall off kid, cause I'm not going to stop and get you again."  
  
He felt her arms tighten around the top of his head and smirked. One thing he didn't have to tell her twice, finally.   
  
  
  
Logan nodded, having no problem with the request. Maveric nodded, bracing himself for pain.  
  
"Run now!"  
  
He whispered a split second before he let time resume. Logan bolted, cutting into Maveric's side as he ran by and pushing easily through the remaining drunks, narrowly avoiding a round of throwing knives being hurled at him. Maveric watched him go, doubled over as blood pooled into his hands and dripped rhythmically onto the floor by his feet. The now unfrozen guard stumbled over to him, making him move so that he could look at the wound.  
  
"Good God...."  
  
He muttered, the slash marks had just barely missed all major organs, but were deeper than Maveric had hoped he would have cut him. But inside Maveric was laughing at his so called 'teammates', all had been so easily deceived by his time freezing abilities that he had successfully saved two of his own kind. 


	8. Slow Healing & New Student

~* Everything copyrighted to Marvel Comics. Plot, Kia, Aurora, and Willow copyrighted to me.*~  
  
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Chapter 8-- Slow Healing & a New Arrival  
  
The small group got downstairs quickly, Logan still lugging Kia around on his shoulders. Trudging into the recovery room, Logan gently lay Aurora down on one of the empty cots, while Xavier prepared an IV. By this time Kia had curled up into a ball on top of Logan's head, her claws kneading his scalp lightly as she looked around the room curiously. Previously too preoccupied to notice what Kia was doing, Logan suddenly felt her claws go a little deeper than she had anticipated as he made a sharp turn. He reached up, grabbing the collar of her shirt and dragging her off his head and in front of his face. The very tips of her claws were lightly tainted red, her feral eyes looking at him before mostly closing them to give a wide smile.  
  
"Ummm....oops."  
  
Logan growled softly, looking at her. She stopped smiling and looked back at him, and what seemed a staring contest had begun. Both were frozen, just staring at each other until Xavier had finished hooking Aurora up to the IV and heart monitor and cleared his throat. Logan snapped out of it, glaring at Kia.  
  
"Get this kid outta my hair..."  
  
He snarled at Kurt, waiting until the blue elf-like mutant had walked just within a few feet of him to release his grip on Kia's shirt and letting her plummet downwards. Kurt quickly shot forward, grabbing the middle back of Kia's shirt just inches above the ground. Hulling her up onto his own shoulders he glared at Logan. Wolverine smirked wickedly, mimicking Kia's higher pitched, childish voice as best he could.  
  
"Oops."  
  
Kia looked over at him, smiling broadly at his imitation of her. She looked over at the place where Aurora lay, watching the modern warrior's battle to regain control of her breathing. The area of white sheets around her hands grew steadily wetter, her palms still draining water. Xavier was watching her too, a worried look on his face. Logan noted it, walking swiftly over towards him and ignoring Kia when she tried to pounce onto his shoulders as a joke again.   
  
Kurt caught her just in time, knowing that she had worked Logan's temper and pushed all the buttons she could possibly push in the tormented man. The look in Logan's eyes told him that the next time she pulled a stunt that night, she wouldn't be let off as easily, no matter how obnoxiously adorable she really was.  
  
As Logan approached, Xavier turned to him, already knowing the information he was seeking.  
  
"She will more than likely pull through this Logan, I wouldn't worry too much. And since I highly doubt that you'll be leaving her side anytime soon, if she so much as whispers 'water' in her sleep, get her a glass and let her drink in. She has temporarily lost control over her powers, though the fact that she lost control so easily tells me that she had limited control to begin with, and she will start to use the water out of her blood stream if she doesn't continue drinking water."  
  
Logan gave a worried look over at Aurora as he listened to Xavier.  
  
"She'll get over what ever that stuff was, right?"  
  
Xavier nodded slowly.  
  
"Yes, thanks to you we got her the antidote quickly."  
  
Logan nodded, pulling a chair out from under a nearby desk and sitting beside the cot. Kia struggled to get free from Kurt's grip, her curiosity was screaming at her to find out who the girl was. Unfortunately Kurt had a strong grip and she couldn't pry herself free. Familiar gray fur began to cover her body, small cat ears and tail sprouted and soon she slid right through Kurt's arms, landing with usual cat grace on the ground. Morphing back quickly and racing over to Logan, she grabbing a hold of his chair leg before Kurt had a chance to grab her again.  
  
"Kia..."  
  
He said in a warning voice, looking cautiously from Logan to his adoptive daughter.  
  
"I 'ink it is best to leave Logan alone right now..."  
  
Kia was already talking in a high pitched tone to Logan, almost completely ignoring Kurt.  
  
"Is she your girlfriend? What's her name? Why are her eyes such funny colors? Why..."  
  
Logan suddenly clasped his hand over her mouth, his eyes flashing angrily. Kia tried to pull back realizing that she wasn't in the best place, but she was paralyzed by his angry gaze.  
  
"Kid."  
  
He snarled at the frightened youth, Kia seemed surprised that he hadn't suddenly sprouted vampire fangs and bat wings he looked so demonic.  
  
"Will you shut up before you make me do something that I really don't want to do."  
  
Kia nodded quickly, still trying to pull back away from him. Logan released her, watching her stumble backwards and away from him.  
  
Racing back to Kurt, Kia took a flying leap and diving behind his floor length cloak to hide. She slowly peeked out from behind him, one arm wrapped around his leg so that she felt anchored to something, and the other hand wrapped around the end of his tail, just below the blade sided spike. Kurt shook his head at her, pulling his tail away.  
  
"I tried to varn you."  
  
He said when she looked up at him, trying to jump up and grab his tail again.  
  
"But he looks different! What if she's a witch and has him under an evil spell? I need a weapon!"  
  
She said in between desperate jumps to try and reach his tail. Kurt smirked.  
  
'Vell sorry, but my tail is off limits."  
  
Kia stopped jumping, panting lightly. She half morphed into her cat form, ears and tail giving the transformation away as well as her newly adopted way of walking on her toes and the balls of her feet, letting her heels remain in the air as she walked on two legs. She crouched down, placing her fingertips and heel of her hands on the ground, feral eyes looking up at Kurt. She made another leap, flying much higher than she had anticipated. Frightened cat mix of a hiss and a meow emitted from her as she flew over Kurt.  
  
Suddenly he was gone, and she had stopped in mid air, then she was down on the ground again in the doorway with Kurt beside her. She gaze an apologetic smile, morphing back to her full human form.  
  
"Er...I really thought I was gonna make it..."  
  
Kurt smirked, but let it fade quickly when he noticed Logan looking over at them.  
  
"If you two are done playing cat-morph football..."  
  
He growled.  
  
"Then get out."  
  
Kurt noticed what Kia had said was credible, and Logan did indeed look different. Of course not the possessed kind of different that the child of overactive imagination had suggested, but Logan did look more something…rather it be annoyed or worried or something entirely different Kurt couldn't tell. He looked around, noticing that Xavier had left and had more than likely been gone for a while. Kia leapt out the door, giving a wide grin.  
  
"There, I'm out!"  
  
She said, giving a look to Logan.  
  
"And you can't tell me to do anything else because I did what you asked and got out."  
  
She stuck her tongue out at him, but quickly bit it as she watched Logan stand up and stalk quickly towards the door, enraged and annoyed look on his face. Kurt stepped in front of him, even though he knew that he was physically no match for Logan, it was the guilt factor that Kia was now his responsibility that forced him to get in his way. Logan growled at Kurt, his own almost black eyes glaring and burning deep into the golden eyes of Kurt.  
  
"Move it elf, I've had it with that kid..."  
  
He reached out, putting his hand on Kurt's shoulder and shoving him out of the doorway. Kia let out a shrill scream as Logan stalked towards her, racing practically in a circle trying to remember what way she had come from.  
  
"I'm leaving, I'm leaving!"   
  
She shrieked, but Logan grabbed her by the wrist and lifted her up so that she was at his eye level. Kia whimpered, watching his free hand slowly clench into a fist and begin to pull back. She began to whimper, pulling her other arm up over her face to protect herself from what she believed to be a reenactment of her struggle to survive from the other night.  
  
She was suddenly grabbed from behind, around her waist, and shrouded in light blue mist then found herself in Kurt's arms at the base of the stairs. The docile golden yellow eyes were glazed over with a never before seen anger and rage of his own. Logan started to charge forward at Kurt, but his feet became cement like as a voice whispered out.  
  
"...need...water..."  
  
The voice was strained and dry sounding, and in no time Logan had turned on his heels and raced back over to the cot, grabbing one of the many bottles of water Xavier had put out and opening one. Lifting Aurora's head, Logan poured small amounts down her throat. Her mouth was chalk dry, she had already started loosing her own bodies water supply to her mutant powers. She drank the whole bottle, her eyes opening and looking over at Logan for a moment before the ice blue orbs closed again. His gaze was directed to the IV bag, which was dry already. He removed it, adding a bigger bag. Almost instantly the bag started rapidly draining. Logan gave a low growl, sensing that Kurt and his street roamer daughter were still there.  
  
"I don't have time for you now, get lost."  
  
He snarled at them, not turning around to see if they would leave or not.  
  
Kurt's rage was slowly declining, now that Kia was safe again. He began to walk backwards, watching Logan cautiously. He was under too much stress to be trusted fully. Kia had pulled the two loose corners of his cloak up around her, hiding once again from Logan.  
  
"I didn't do anything!"  
  
She whined, slightly muffled by the cloak. Logan again gave a low snarl, turning around and acting like he might leap over his chair just to get to Kia and make her shut up.  
  
"Kurt!"  
  
He roared.  
  
"Get that kid outta here!"  
  
Kurt didn't want to risk simply walking up the stairs, so he teleported instead. By this time all the teleporting he had done in the past ten or more minutes was beginning to have an effect. He felt more tired than he had moments ago, closing rapidly in on his limit, especially with carrying a passenger. He tried to put Kia down, but she clung to him even more tightly.   
  
"NO! What if he comes and gets me? He was gonna hit me!"  
  
Kurt sighed."You've got to learn vhen not to say 'ings like 'dat to Logan. He's not used to little children like you being around all 'de time."  
  
Kia pulled one handful of cloak over her head to hide her from Kurt as well.  
  
"But he was going to hit me...I wasn't being that bad..."  
  
She whimpered. Kurt pulled the cloak away from her face to see that she was about to cry.  
  
"He didn't mean it Kia. Logan is very upset 'dat 'de girl vas 'urt, 'dats all. He vas 'de same vay vhen you vere 'urt just 'de other day too."  
  
She looked up at him, inquisitive and mischievous as always.  
  
"Was he really daddy?"  
  
Kurt nodded, wiping a lone tear gently from her face.   
  
"Of course he vas, Kia. He stayed up 'ave 'de night just to make sure 'dat no one vould try and 'urt you again."  
  
Kia lowered her eyes, looking at the ground with a stumped expression on her face. When she looked back at Kurt, her eyes were dry.  
  
"Then why does he act like he hates everyone if he's so worried about them."  
  
Kurt sighed a little, wishing that he knew the correct answer to give her, but instead could only shrug.  
  
Logan sat on the left of Aurora, listening to her breath in and out, keenly in wait for the softest plea for more water to come from between her lips. The black eye she had received in battle had stopped swelling, but it was still too puffy to open. Her left eye was slightly open, darting around the room in her dazzled state. She had yet to realize that she was anywhere different, probably thanks to the sounds of the beginning of a battle courtesy of Logan and Kia. She had looked at Logan a few times, slowly blinking as if trying to remember why he was there. They had only been in the recovery room for two, maybe three hours, and Logan had already replaced the IV bag six times. The small jet streams coming from her palms were slowly loosing their force as she recovered control over her powers. But both hands were held in strange fists, just to that her fingertips reached down and touched the heels of her hands. Every time the jet streams cascaded from her palms more forcefully she winced, opening her doubled over hands and pressing her palms together, forcing the water to go into the opposite hand. Logan watched her, shaking his head and speaking to her for the first time.  
  
"Your just gonna make it hurt worse if you do that."  
  
He muttered softly.   
  
Aurora's left eye opened wider, his voice pulling her from some other world. She looked over at him, then around at the room, her ice blue gaze suddenly cautious and angry. She glared back over at Logan.  
  
"Where am I?"  
  
The question itself was innocent enough, but the growling tone of voice in which it was presented made it seem lethal.  
  
"Xavier Institute for Gifted Youngsters."  
  
Logan remarked dryly back to her. Aurora sat up, getting a better look around.  
  
"Who the hell told you to bring me here?"   
  
"I did."  
  
Aurora glared at him, even though it didn't get the full affect with just one eye willing to open.  
  
"I'm not a damn 'youngster'."  
  
She growled again, trying to get up but finding her leg unwilling to bend. She pulled the thin white sheet off her legs, finding a thick brace over her cargo pant leg.  
  
"That guy pounded you pretty good. Gave you that attractive black eye and almost broke your leg."  
  
Logan stated, pointing out the obvious. Aurora pushed herself onto the floor, ripping all the monitor hook ups off her skin, and hobbling across the floor towards the door.  
  
"Well, thank you anyway for the unwanted hospitality, I'm leaving."  
  
"Yeah, probably better you go back to the bar...you made a heck of a lot a friends down there with that water show."  
  
Aurora stopped, his words seeming to force the earlier events back into her mind. Leaning against the nearest wall, she slid down it with her fractured leg still held straight, staring at the ground as her memory flooded back to her.  
  
"No...no dammit..."  
  
She lip-synced a long string of vulgar phrases before pounding her fists on the floor and recoiling them so that she cradled her temples in her damp palms. She shook her head softly, seeming like the world had just come to a crashing halt. Logan walked over to her, sitting with his back to the wall opposite her. Her good eye flickered up to him, still with the unpredictable look of a wild animal in a cage. His eyes were no less lethal looking. She looked back at the floor as he began to speak, showing that she wasn't going to talk about it. He didn't bother to finish the first word, seeing no point. He slowly stood back up, pacing in front of her impatiently before bending down and picking her up, one arm around her stomach, the other under her knees.  
  
"Since you seem to have no place else to go, might as well suggest that you stay here a while."   
  
He carried her back over to the cot and set her down. She glared at him, but couldn't argue...he was right of course, now she was stranded and this cursed school was the only haven she had.  
  
Soft footsteps tiptoed down the stairs, blue-green cat eyes flashing in the nearly non-existent light of the downstairs hall, only the light from the recovery room shed a soft glow that cast dim shadows on the walls. Slowly, Kia peeked around the corner. Aurora was sitting up with a pile of pillows holding her up, she was only half asleep, Kia could tell by the way she would drum her fingers against her arm every so often. Logan was sitting near the door, the chair only on its back two legs, Logan's own legs providing the font support. His arms were folded across his chest, head bent forward slightly. His shoulders rose slowly, making Kia guess that he was either meditating or sleeping. She slunk forward, slowly closing in on the door in her half-cat morph form because it provided her with a softer walk and quicker reflexes. She was walking on all fours again, in the alien looking manor that left her heel acting almost as a reverse knee.   
  
Aurora's good eye flashed open, her lip raising in a snarl as her mouth began to open to say something. Kia lifted one hand from the floor, holding a finger up to her lips as she violently shook her head. She then maneuvered to a sitting position, more so sitting on her heels than the floor, still making the shushing gesture, then pointed to Logan, her eyes wide. She then pointed to herself, and pulled a clawed finger across her throat in a desperate attempt to get Aurora to be quiet. She wasn't supposed to be down here anyway, but she had left Kurt alone, sleeping soundly on the spiral stairs to come see how the new person was doing. But should Logan find her, and without her sergeant father as her back up, she was as good as dead. Aurora slowly closed her mouth as Kia crept slowly into the light and realizing that it was only a little cat girl. Slinking past Logan's post beside the doorway, Kia made her way over to Aurora.  
  
"Hi."  
  
She whispered.  
  
"I'm Kia."  
  
Aurora watched the child with no interest in talking, but the persistent look in the feral eyes made her give a dreading sigh.  
  
"Aurora."  
  
Her answer was hardly in a whisper. Kia shook her head violently again, looking back at the still sleeping Logan.  
  
"Don't do that!"  
  
She hissed in low tones.  
  
"He's not to happy with me right now..."  
  
"Wonder why."  
  
Aurora remarked sarcastically, looking over at the now empty chair as Logan quietly shut the door, angry eyes watching Aurora. Kia noticed her gaze shift, her cat-like ears lay back against her skull as her eyes widened fearfully. She didn't even need to turn around to know that he was charging at her, and she dove beneath the bed skirt, her thin form just fitting under the cot snuggly.   
  
Logan skidded to a halt before he crashed into the cot, growling.  
  
"Kia! What the hell are you doing?"  
  
He snapped. Aurora smirked, looking over at a mobile medicine tray that was just level with the cot, and slowly slid herself onto it, giving Logan the pleasure of tipping the cot to one side and making a grab at Kia. But the child had felt the weight shift and knew that it wasn't good, and as the cot got lifted off of her she darted behind the cart Aurora sat on and made a beeline for the door. She fumbled around with the lock too long, however, and was soon in Logan's binding grip. Both of his hands were on the sides of her shoulders, but to his surprise his fingertips touched. Either she was just that small or her was literally crushing her. But he let in pass without a second thought, shaking her.  
  
"Well! What are you doin' bothering her?"  
  
Kia waited until he wasn't shaking her so hard to speak so that she wouldn't end up biting her tongue.  
  
"Just checking to see if she was better! Honest!"  
  
She said, her hands wrapped halfway around his wrists as her claws dug into his flesh.  
  
"Let me go!"  
  
She protested, kicking out at him, even though the length of his arms prevented any foot to stomach connections.   
  
"Oh, down? Fine with me..."  
  
He threw her to the ground, watching her less than gracefully feline landing. Kia ran back to the door, having already unlocked it before Logan grabbed her, opened it, and looked back inside at the two as Logan waited impatiently for her to leave.  
  
"I knew you two were gonna like each other ...you tag-team cheaters."  
  
With that she stuck out her tongue at them, locked the door, slammed it shut and raced up the stairs as quickly as she could possibly before Logan could run after her.  
  
Aurora was silent and grim, watching the antics that for a moment brought memories of her past flooding back into her mind. Soon she noticed that Logan was talking to her with a concerned look on his face and she pushed the memories back.  
  
"Cute kid."  
  
She stated, then her expression became even more grim as she regarded him.  
  
"She yours?"  
  
Logan furrowed a brow at the last question, trying not to laugh.  
  
"Who, Kia? Hell no, she's some cling-on orphan Kurt found a night or two ago."  
  
"Found?"  
  
Aurora asked him with a still quizzical voice. He only briefly nodded.  
  
"But orphans roam the streets constantly, most don't search for homes for fear of ending up in a gang."  
  
She retorted, forcing Logan to sigh and explain.  
  
"That new mutant hater gang got her, smashed the kid up pretty good and left her in the alley. Kurt found her after that...so now she thinks he's her dad or somethin', I don't know. Xavier knows all that mental case stuff."  
  
Aurora simply gave a sigh and a nod.  
  
"And who is this 'Kurt' you keep talking about? I want to meet him if I have to stay here."  
  
Her good eye flashed a little, like she would kill Kurt if he was anything like Logan to the child.  
  
"Sure, you can meet him...Kia will probably drag him down here to play body guard after she raids the kitchen."  
  
"Why did you react to her that way?"  
  
Aurora snapped, the subject shift seemed strange to Logan.  
  
"The kid is too cute for her own good, she started gettin' on my nerves being down here while you were still out of it and askin' me all these questions about you that I didn't know the answers to."  
  
Her could-be lethal gaze cooled a little and she smirked.  
  
"Low temper, eh?"  
  
Logan smirked and nodded. Aurora suddenly realized that she didn't know the answer to one crucial question.  
  
"I never got the name of the man I guess I owe my life too."  
  
She said, looking over at him.  
  
"Logan. And I never got the name of the femme fatal I played savior too."  
  
"Aurora."  
  
Kia made it easily to the top of the stairs, pausing to see if Logan had followed her. When there were no heavy footsteps in pursuit or his angry voice yelling her name, she morphed back to her human form and took a detour through the kitchen. There were no boxes of anything laying out yet much to her dismay. Looking around she finally came across the digital oven clock. 12:18 a.m., but of course she had difficulty interperating what the numbers and dots and colons meant. She clambered up onto the counter, opening the cabinet doors to find the doors only hide near emptiness behind them. She sighed, trying cabinet after cabinet, getting the same results as far as easily eaten items went. Sure, there were boxes and boxes of things to eat, but it all had to be cooked, and to Kia the oven looked like a creature jut laying in wait for some innocent, hungry child to get close enough for it to eat them. But her eye was caught by a light metallic golden brown sheen from the very top. It was too high up for her to reach on her own, so she looked around for something to use. She started opening draws and searching through them, nearly screaming when she almost stuck her hand into a draw of cutting knives. Finally she opened one drawer of very strange looking metal tools. She picked up quit a few, not knowing which she would need, and turned back to the shiny paper. Just before she got a chance to use them, there was a drowsy voice behind her.  
  
"Kia? What are you doing?"  
  
She dropped the spatula as she whirled around, nearly falling off the counter herself. When she regained her balance, she saw Bobby standing in the doorway, giving a curious glance at the many opened cabinets and draws and the arsenal of items Kia had drug up on the counter with her. She looked around her and gave a mischievous smile.  
  
"Well...I'm hungry."  
  
Bobby glanced over at the clock, it was now just a little after one in the morning. His gaze slugged back over to Kia.  
  
"So your destroying the kitchen at 1a.m.?"  
  
"Not destroying exactly...more like trying to get that."  
  
She pointed up to the metallic paper. Bobby followed to where she was pointing, recognizing it as the corner of a twix wrapper from part of Rogue's stash. He smirked.  
  
"Rogue's gonna hate me...but if it will get you to go to bed so that I can have some ice cream in peace..."  
  
He stood on tiptoe, grabbing the loose corner and letting the candy bar fall down into Kia's waiting hands.  
  
"There...now go to bed."  
  
Kia sighed, now quite curious as to what ice cream tasted like, but jumped off the counter and walked out of the kitchen while peeling the wrapped back from the candy bar.  
  
Kurt woke up suddenly, now noticing that he was without the extra 80 pounds laying cradled in his left arm and nestled up against him. He sat up, confirming his worst fear...Kia was gone. His golden yellow eyes flashed nervously as he realized where she must have went. He got up, leaping down to the bottom of the stairs and starting to round a corner only to find Kia in his way. She shrieked, ducking and clutching her candy bar so that he wouldn't hit her. Kurt teleported to a standing position behind her, giving her a strange, frightened look.  
  
"Vhere vere you!"  
  
He asked, watching her as she swallowed the rest of the twix bar in an effort to destroy the evidence.  
  
"I went down to see Aurora, but Logan caught me and then I ran away into the kitchen. There wasn't anything good so I got a whole bunch of weird metal things to try and reach this paper, then Bobby came in and...He didn't give me anything, honest!"  
  
The twix wrapped floated gently to the ground, gleaming in the dim light. Kia looked at it, moving her foot over it and dragging it behind her in hopes that Kurt hadn't seen it.  
  
"I told you not to go see 'de girl until tomorrow. And you've got chocolate on your chin."  
  
Kia reached up, wiping the small amount of chocolate off her chin that had gotten there by her means of engulfing food. She grinned broadly.  
  
"But I'm ok."  
  
She reassured him. Kurt sighed and shook his head, amazed by how she could worry him.  
  
"'Dat's good, but it's not 'de point."  
  
He knelt down beside her.  
  
"If I don't know vhere you are, 'den I can not protect you or 'elp you if you are 'urt, understand?"  
  
Kia nodded, walking over and hugging Kurt.  
  
Morning had come, and sure enough, Kurt awoken to find a box and a half of donuts empty and a very full Kia napping under the counter. He chuckled a little to himself, scooping her up and cradling her in one arm while making his way downstairs to not only see how the new girl was doing, but to apologize to Logan for Kia. He trotted down the stairs, and stopped at the recovery room door. It was slightly ajar, so he looked in. Logan was no where to be seen, but Aurora was wide awake, sitting on the side of her cot and cracking her knuckles. Her black eye had stopped swelling, and she could open it most of the way. Kurt pushed the door open a little more, making sure that it squeaked so that he wouldn't scare her. Aurora didn't even look up, instead started speaking.  
  
"About time you got back. I'm starving..."  
  
Kurt smirked, she obviously thought that he was Logan.  
  
"You 'ave got 'de vrong person."  
  
He said in his usual heavily accented voice. Aurora shot a look up at him, the expression on her face when she saw the fangs, strange hands, and tail accompanied with carrying an unconscious looking Kia suggested that she might scream. Kurt held up his free hand, shaking his head.   
  
"It's alright, she just 'ad six too many donuts."  
  
He said, gesturing to Kia, but seeing that the explanation didn't work he tried again though he wished Kia was awake to do the talking.  
  
"I'm Kurt, 'er caretaker."  
  
Aurora's face returned to normal upon hearing his name, though she was no less shaken by his appearance. Sitting in the vacant chair so that he could give his arm a break from holding Kia, Kurt smiled kindly, trying to hide his fangs as best he could.  
  
"I'm very sorry for startling you."  
  
Aurora forced herself to give a half smile back.  
  
"That's ok...for a minute you seriously looked like a serial killer though, especially carrying her like that. I'm Aurora, Logan told me some about you...but he didn't mention your...er..."  
  
She paused, not really knowing how to describe him in a non-offensive way since Logan had told her about his extreme faith. Kurt tilted his head down and raised a hand as if pardoning the word he knew that she was going to use.  
  
"I understand, lots of people call me 'dat, so you vill be far from 'de first."  
  
Aurora gaze a weak smile, but instead of saying the word that was on the tip of her tongue she chose to change the subject.  
  
"Cat girl there paid me a visit last night, as I'm sure you've heard."  
  
She furrowed a brow at Kia, noting that she now had no tail or ears. Kurt sighed.  
  
"Yes. You must tether yourself to 'er to keep 'er from roaming...'dat or put a bell around 'er neck."  
  
Aurora laughed a little, the dark look of death that she had held at the mention of his name the night before was gone. He was most certainly more patient...no need to worry...  
  
Logan trudged back down the stairs, weaving past the smaller children in the kitchen and mumbling about not being paid to be an 'errand boy'. Like a waiter, he carried a tray slightly to the side of him, on the plate were two pieces of lightly buttered toast and a serving of 'sunny-side up' eggs, accompanied by a medium glass of orange juice. His continual grumbling began to consist of the queenly treatment Aurora was getting for not even wanting to be there, but he was silenced when he heard muffled voices coming from the recovery room. Without even listening for the source of the second voice, he assumed it to belong to Kia. 'Doesn't that kid ever quit?' He growled to himself, quickening his pace a little. As he approached the door, he caught a glimpse of a blue spear tipped tail flickering slightly in the doorway. He sighed, now noticing the German accent that went along with the voice.  
  
"Move your tail elf...unless you want it stomped on."  
  
He grumbled, standing in the doorway. Kurt slowly curled his tail around the chair leg, glancing over his shoulder and offering Logan a warm smile.  
  
"It is nice to see you 'dis morning too Logan."  
  
Aurora looked over at her room service, and grinned.  
  
"Do I need to leave a tip?"  
  
Logan smirked.  
  
"I'll take a rain check instead."  
  
The smell of food lifted Kia from her sleep. Groggily, she looked around the room, wincing when she saw Logan. Her gaze drifted to Aurora's food, but she stuck her tongue out to the corner of her mouth, still to stuffed from the donuts to even want to think about food. She suddenly felt a hair on top of her head that gently ruffled her unruly mane, pushing her bangs down in her eyes. She brushed them back, leaning back and looking up at Kurt.   
  
"Well, the cat girl awakens from hibernation."  
  
She heard Aurora's unusually rough feminine voice call out to her. She looked straight ahead again, getting a smirk from Aurora.  
  
"What happened to the ears and tail...Kia was it?"  
  
Kia nodded in response to her name, then yawned a little, allowing herself to half morph again.  
  
"You mean these?"  
  
She said, pulling gently on her gray tabby cat ears. Aurora nodded, looking quite amused.   
  
"She's an animal shifter."  
  
Kurt said at last. Kia hadn't taken her eyes from Aurora.  
  
"What are you?"  
  
Aurora furrowed a brow at her.  
  
"What am I? Human last time I checked..."  
  
Kia trifled a laugh, shaking her head.  
  
"No! What can you do? What kind of mutant are you?"  
  
Aurora's smile faded a little.  
  
"A water creator/controller. I have limited healing abilities too...but only for others. It doesn't work when I try and use it on myself."  
  
"Really? Wow! Can you show me a trick?"  
  
Aurora winced at the request, for it hurt to create the jet streams. She looked around, finding a half empty bottle of water. She concentrated on it, making the water slowly spiral out of the open top and spin around Kia. Aurora's eyes became a deep sapphire color as she took firm control over the waters every motion. As it wove around the child, Kia slowly floated up into the air as if suddenly in zero gravity. Her long copper brown hair floated above her, just as Aurora's bangs began too. The water formed bands around Kia's wrists and a choker around her neck before slowly hardening into a watery crystal. Kia tumbled back to earth, landing on all fours on the floor. Luckily enough she had still been in half cat morph form. Aurora's eyes returned to the icy blue as she watched the remaining water still spiral in the air where Kia had been, condensing into a medium water orb. Holding her hands together as if praying, she slowly separated her hands and the orb did the same, separating into two smaller orbs. Both orbs flew to her hands, and Aurora tossed one to Kia.  
  
"There, something to keep you occupied with. It will stay like that...unless I loose control of my powers and then it'll explode. The jewelry will stay the same though, that crystal stuff protects it from exploding."  
  
Kia caught the orb, it moved in her hand just like a full water balloon. She smirked widely.  
  
"That's so cool!"  
  
She squealed. Aurora smiled a little, tossing the other orb to Logan.  
  
"And if I must stay here, don't expect me to get a room. Just incase I loose control while outside or where ever...I'll need some help..."  
  
Logan looked at the orb in his hand, curious as to her sudden change of heart towards him, she had been like a cobra ready to strike while talking to him last night, now she was as docile as a deer.   
  
Aurora dismissed Logan's confused look without so much as a smirk. She had been loosing control of her powers a lot lately. She had done this before she learned to make to water orbs and before that it had been learning to use the jet streams from her palms. She wondered what she was in store to learn next. Kia was bouncing the orb on the ground like a bouncy ball, her face shone with amazement that it really wouldn't break unless Aurora made it or she lost control. Aurora smirked at the child, noticing Kurt watching her patiently. She glanced up at him, her eyes hardening as she did.  
  
"What?"  
  
"'Dat 'urt you, did it not?"  
  
Aurora gave him a surprised look, trying to dismiss it as quickly as she had Logan. But Kurt reached out, took her hands and turned them palm up. Her palms were bruised black from where the jet streams had been coming out, and had traces of blood red spots from where she had added a bit of her own water supply to keep the orbs solid unless commanded. Aurora pulled her wrists free, rubbing them uncontrollably. His short fur had felt so strange against her arms, it was creepy. Kurt recoiled his hand quickly, almost in a shameful way. Kia was as close to immediate as a person could be to pick up her foster fathers uneasiness. She picked up her orb before it rolled to close to Logan and crawled back up onto Kurt's knee, smiling at him with sad eyes. He smiled back, his thoughts interrupted by Aurora's voice.   
  
"...Yes, it does hurt."  
  
No shame for her action was held in her voice, only a sort of bitter anger that stemmed much deeper than Kurt hoped to know.  
  
"'De professor could teach you to control your abilities better."  
  
"I don't need any help."  
  
Aurora snarled, feeling like she was on a short chain with her fractured leg. She knew she didn't look like a threat, sitting here with one leg held straight in a plastic cast and a black eye, but just they wait until she was healed….  
  
The rest of the day drained on like sand through an hourglass, slowly and smoothly with no major disruptions. Kurt had spent most of the day in Xavier's office with Kia filling out adoption papers and explaining to Kia why she had to sign a few of the lines herself. He also received the key to his room, which was in the attic do to the fact that Kurt found comfort being up in the rafters. It had taken the staff and a few of the students nearly a month to transfer the attic into a room, but Kurt was glad that they were finally done. As he went up the abandoned stairwell to reach his new living quarters, Kia marched after him while wringing the bottom of his cloak nervously in her hands and looking around the dark area. The door unlocked with a small 'click' and Kurt felt a tug on his cloak as Kia jumped. He smiled back at her before going inside. The room was big, much bigger than he had expected, newer walls had been put up to create rooms. New, deep blue carpet was over the once bare wooden floors, and a golden/navy blue chair and couch as well as cherry table and TV stand dotted the sea of carpet of what was now the living room. Off to the right, where the attic corner would have once been was a smaller room, with purple and ivy green decorations especially for Kia. The child sized bed had a cat print comforter as well as a giant stuffed cat with a small tag around its neck that read "Welcome to the family." It was signed by the entire staff, even Logan. Kia ran in to inspect her room, and Kurt left her to snoop while he inspected the rest of his apartment like home. Right beside Kia's room was Kurt's. The room had a bookshelf full of World Religion books and a Catholic Bible. A small golden crucifix was on the opposite wall of his bed, and the bed itself was covered by a pattern less deep green and navy blue comforter. This was the only room which was connected to a bathroom, a smaller scale bathroom had been added rather quickly after Kia was found specifically for her. Kurt's bedroom was the only room where they had not put up a ceiling so that he could recline in the rafters. Suddenly his closet door rattled, drawing his attention away from the room. Kia tumbled out of the sliding door finally, smirking widely.   
  
"They added a little door! See!"  
  
She pushed away the few longer cloaks that hung in the closet to reveal a small opening that had been cut out of the wall. Kurt smirked, shaking his head and making a mental note to get a lock for the closet.  
  
Aurora hobbled through the hallways on crutches during the classes, looking for anything interesting to do while Logan taught the second half of the Self-Defense class. She went to round the corner and almost knocked over another girl who was looking around. The other girl's long topaz hair flowed into her face as she stumbled backwards, small jade highlights sparkled in the well lit halls. She regained her balance, brushing her hair out of her face and regarding Aurora worriedly with bright emerald eyes. Her skin was very tan, making her look from across the boarder. Aurora hobbled backwards as well, just watching the new girl curiously. She was wearing black flares, with a tan/hunter green/black low cut leopard print tank top. And resting on her collar bone delicately was a band of painted ivy, outlined in gold. The girl fumbled around for words for a minute.  
  
"Oh...I-I'm so sorry. Can you please tell me where Professor Xavier's office is? I-I'm a little lost..."  
  
Her voice was timid and barely above a whisper, Aurora found it amazing that she could even hear her. She shrugged.  
  
"I'm about as new here as you. Just go bang n one of those doors and ask a teacher."  
  
The girls eyes widened, as if such a though would never dare cross her mind. Aurora sighed, seeing that this was going no where fast. She turned to the nearest door, lifting both feet off the floor while balancing on her crutches, swinging backwards then forward, kicking the door open with a ringing sound like a gun shot. A few of the girls screamed, followed by a gust of wind. An angry looking woman with white hair and blue eyes strode forward, arms folded just below her chest.  
  
"Can I help you?"  
  
She asked in highly annoyed tones. Aurora smirked.  
  
"Yeah, sorry about that. This girl needs to know where to find some guy...Xavier."  
  
Storm looked over at the new girl and smiled.  
  
"Why, Willow! I wasn't expecting you to arrive for another few hours!"  
  
Willow smiled sheepishly, just twitching her fingers enough to qualify as a weak wave. Storm looked back at Aurora.  
  
"How much do you know about Business Management?"  
  
"Say what?"  
  
"Nevermind. Just keep my class under control for a few minutes, understood?"  
  
"Sure, I'll baby-sit..."   
  
Aurora grumbled. Storm smiled.   
  
"Good, good. Come on then Willow, I'll show you to the Professors office and we'll see if we can't find Kurt."  
  
"Yes Ma'mam."  
  
Kia strode through the rest of her new room, savaging through the drawers of her dressers and the new clothes that Rogue and Storm had gotten her. Picking out a new outfit, she ran into her own little bathroom to try them on. Kurt sat in the living room, testing out the chair. It was soft and he easily sank into it, nearly falling asleep before hearing Kia's cheerful voice.  
  
"How do I look?"  
  
He sat up as best he could, looking over that back of the chair. Kia now had a pair of wide boot cut flares on with occasional sky blue stripes, and her shirt was a long necked tank top, the black and blue stripes that gave it a tiger effect were interrupted by two large golden eyes that matched her own eyes. Around her neck was a necklace that had a small silver moon hanging from the fragile looking chain. She beamed, looking to Kurt for his approval. He smiled, nodded.  
  
"You look very nice Kia."  
  
Kia smirked, rushing back into her room to see what else she could find. Kurt watched her prance off, inwardly smiling as she discovered a toy chest filled with smaller stuffed animals and books and began jumping up and down exstatically.  
  
Aurora stood in front of the class, rocking back and forth idly on her crutches as the students watched her in complete silence.   
  
"So, Business Managment class, eh? Any of you worms know how to use your powers?"  
  
The students remained frozen in silence. She glared at a young boy close to her.  
  
"Well?"  
  
She snapped. The boy winced as he watched Aurora rock a little closer to him.  
  
"Yes Mamam."  
  
She glanced to a girl in the back of the room as she hid behind her text book.  
  
"You- name your power."  
  
Aurora instructed. The text book was slowly lowered, and the girl pointed to herself.  
  
"M-M-Me?"  
  
Aurora's upper lip tugged into a silent snarl as she nodded her agrivated yes.  
  
"Transformation"  
  
"Into what?"  
  
"Inamimate objects."  
  
"Demonstrate."  
  
The girl sighed, slowly shifting into an alarm clock, the two buns her hair was pulled back in became the old fashion ringers. She morphed back, giving a weak smile of accomplisment. Aurora looked, for the most part, pretty unimpressed.  
  
"Anyone have water powers?"  
  
The boy who had earlier shown her the text book slowly raised his hand. Aurora sneered at him.  
  
"Show me what you've got kid."  
  
The boys eyes widened a little.  
  
"But your on..."  
  
"Doesn't matter, just show me what you've got."  
  
He reluctantly accepted what seemed to be a challenge, looking to the classrooms only sink and concentrating on the small drips of water until a water orb was in formulated. He sent it flying at Aurora, who only raised her hand and absorbed the water orb. It was replaced in her hand by six smaller orbs, and she hurled them at the boy. He winced, but managed to stop them in mid-air and send them back at her. She simply absorbed them into her black and blue palms again while giving him a testing glance.  
  
"You can only manipulate water?"  
  
He nodded, his eyes fixed on her palms. She turned her hands so that the bruised area faced behind her.  
  
"I can create, absorb, and control."  
  
She retorted to his stunned look.  
  
"But your hand..."  
  
"Will be fine."  
  
Aurora growled in her own finishing statement to his sentence, wondering where their teacher had gone.  
  
Storm waited in Xavier's empty office with Willow, sighing as she paced by the door.   
  
"Where could Kurt be?"  
  
Willow watched her nervously. Storm abruptly stopped when Xavier's voice invaded her mind.  
  
~On his way. Warn Willow about his teleportation.~  
  
Storm turned to inform the new student of the entrance the devil himself must envy, but an explosion of blue mist erupted between them. At first, only bright yellow eyes were able to penetrate the mist, slowly followed by Kurt himself. Kia hung around his neck, her eyes wide. This was the first time she had actually been paying attention to the median dimension that Kurt traveled through.  
  
"Lets...do...that...AGAIN!"  
  
She voice crackled out in simple words, her excitement as well as astonishment left her brain dead as to how to form complete sentences. Kurt smirked, but was quickly returned to reality by Willow's scream. He turned towards her, which only seemed to complicate the problem. Storm ran up beside him, placing a gently hand on his shoulder and watching Willow calmly.  
  
"Willow, this is Kurt."  
  
Willow calmed down a little as she watched Kia jump to the ground and run over to her.  
  
"Hi! I'm Kia!"  
  
She stated cheerfully, beaming up at the new mutant as if she had known her all her life.  
  
"What's your name?"  
  
Willow was silent and still in shock. Kia crept a little closer.  
  
"Whatsa matter?"  
  
She transformed into her feline state, retaining her ability to speak.  
  
"Cat got your tongue?"  
  
Willow couldn't help but chuckle, sounding a little nervous at first, then mostly normal. Kia transformed back into human form and smiled as the new mutant whispered.  
  
"Willow."  
  
Turning to her foster father, Kia tilted her head a little.  
  
"If you have to show her around, does that make her kinda like your kid? Cause that would mean she'd be my sister!"  
  
Kia announced happily, surprising Willow by jumping up onto her lap and sitting down with her back facing the older mutants.  
  
"You wanna be my big sister...right?"  
  
Kia gave a fang filled grin of complete innocents. Willow gave a weak smile.  
  
"Well....I"  
  
Kia wrapped her arms around Willows neck before she even finished her sentence.  
  
"I knew you did!"   
  
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*  
  
Authors Note: Thanks to everyone who read and reviewed! I hope that you all like my portrail o f the characters...this is after all my first X-men fic. Chapter 9 might take a while to get here since I'm going on a vacation and volunteering at the Red Cross a lot this summer, but have no fear...it'll get her a.s.a.p!  
  
~Dragonmistriss 


End file.
